EUCALYPTUS CRUSH Marie Coronel, a morning reporter at KGTV-10-ABC in San Diego (Market #28), will undergo surgery Thursday for what the station described as "multiple spinal injuries." Her doctor says its a "mystery" she ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B hopes you wont say or write center around. Its illogical. Think about it. Something cannot center "around" something else. It can ...
BRANCHING OUT Marie Coronel, a morning reporter at KGTV-10-ABC in San Diego (Market #28), and photographer Mike Gold had just finished a live shot yesterday about wind damage caused by an El Ni?o-fueled storm ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Now that the World Health Organization has declared the Zika virus a global emergency, lets be sure youre saying it correctly. Zika is ...
BEYOND EXCITED As the countdown to Super Bowl 50 enters its final week, Cox-owned WSOC-9-ABC in Charlotte (Market #22) has jumped squarely on the Carolina Panthers bandwagon. Veteran news photogs Sean Siemon (left) and ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B addresses a subject that may have you in a quandary the way it does one of your fellow newsies in the ...
DEBATABLE SPIN In a BREAKING NEWS interview with CNNs Brianna Keilar shortly before the start of last nights Republican debate, Donald Trump said hed gotten an apology earlier in the day from Fox News ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B wants to party with you today. Its the Democratic Party and the Democratic candidate. A member of the Democratic Party is ...
THE URGE TO MERGE After months of negotiations, Meredith Corp. yesterday agreed to walk away from its merger with Media General Inc., allowing Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. to acquire Media General for roughly $4.6 ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." News and "views" rhyme. Really. If youve been saying nooz, Mrs. B hopes youll do a pronunciation adjustment. And that W that probably ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B has heard from several of her readers asking about the appropriate use of epidemic and pandemic. We often use the word ...
INTENTIONAL DEATH Nick Wiltgen, the senior digital meteorologist at The Weather Channel who died Sunday afternoon in a car crash at the Colony Square Mall in Midtown Atlanta, took his own life, according to ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." The AP Stylebook has added El Ni?o and La Ni?a to its weather terms: El Nino is a naturally occurring worldwide climate phenomenon ...
ATTITUDES OF CONSTERNATION Donald Trump says he might skip Thursdays debate on Fox News Channel because of his concerns about debate moderator Megyn Kelly. "If I think Im going to be treated unfairly, Ill ...
PRIMETIME SLIPUP MSNBCs human resources department may have inadvertently let the cat out of the bag. The network appears to be quietly making plans to replace Chris Hayes as the host of "All In," ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B hopes if youre not clear on whether to use a singular verb or a plural one with "neither…nor" and "either…or," that ...
BUSTED BY PC POLICE Raycoms WTOL-11-CBS in Toledo (Market #77) reportedly fired at least seven employees on Monday, including three on-air personalities, for playing the game "Cards Against Humanity" while at the station New ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." With placement of the question mark and the exclamation point, you have to do some thinking. Sometimes they go inside the closing quotation ...
CHEAP OIL SINKS AJAM Al Jazeera America, the cable news channel that promised to cover American news soberly and seriously, will shut down by the end of April. As many as 700 staff members ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Today lets look at three words that sound exactly alike and mean nothing alike: peeked, peaked, and piqued. The verb "peek" means to ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." "Unspoken" and "unspeakable" have very different meanings. Mrs. B wants to be sure you know the difference between the two words. "Unspoken" means ...
UNSOLVED MYSTERY So hows that search for Supermans shooter going in Waco? It has now been 393 days since an unknown gunman shot Patrick Crawford, the now-former morning meteorologist at Tegnas KCEN-6-NBC in Temple, ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Remembering the difference between "affect" and "effect" may be one of the most challenging grammar issues Mrs. B has encountered. In most cases ...
WEEK-LONG TRYOUT Sam Champion returned to "Good Morning America" Monday (for a week), filling in for Ginger Zee, who is on maternity leave. "Feels good. Feels good," he said, referring to his return…not Ginger ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." A Baltimore newsie begins todays lesson on confusing libel and liable. I heard a local anchor say, "The man may be held libel ...
BONEHEAD MAKE-GOODS The College Football Playoff committee has been widely criticized for scheduling its two national championship semi-final games on New Years Eve. Now, ESPN, which paid millions to broadcast both games and promised ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." "Accept" is a verb that means to receive. ~The producer said she wouldnt accept the late package. "Except" is usually a preposition that ...
NBC BOSTON NBC formally announced yesterday that it is pulling its network affiliation from Sunbeams WHDH-7-NBC in Boston (Market #8) and will launch what it calls "NBC Boston" on January 1, 2017. "The new ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B has more soundalikes for you, beginning with "allusion" and "illusion." An "allusion" is an indirect mention of something, as in: ~In ...
NETWORK POWER PLAY ABC has notified family-owned WKPT-19-ABC in Kingsport, TN (Tri-Cities Market #97) that it will lose its network affiliation on February 1, 2016. The network is moving across the street to Media ...
UNANCHORED BACHELORETTE Your Surly Editor? will admit to never having watched a full episode of ABCs "The Bachelor," a Monday night (8 p.m.) reality/dating series, now in its 20th season, in which a pack ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Lets continue with words that sound alike and sometimes jump in where they dont belong. "Ordinance" and "ordnance" lead the group today. An ...
HELL FREEZES OVER Just when you thought youd seen it all in this crazy business…. ABCs "Good Morning America" has invited Sam Champion back to the show for a week to fill in for ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B wonders if youve noticed the words "council" and "counsel" misused. A "council" is a group of people appointed or elected to ...
HEADED FOR A CLIFF Politicians will spend more money than ever before on television advertising in 2016…an estimated $4.4 billion, compared to $3.8 billion in the 2012 campaign. TV spending on the Republican presidential ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." "Ravaging" and "ravishing" sound alike, but they sure dont mean the same thing. This week lets look at some more sound-alike words that ...
ENTERTAINING COUNTDOWN New Years Eve has become one of the most competitive live-broadcast nights of the year, with multiple TV networks airing coverage of festivities in New York, Miami, and elsewhere. "With a million ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Its New Years Eve. The apostrophe goes before the "s" because the day belongs to only one year. And since you may be ...
INSPIRING SKEPTICISM Raise your hand if you spent the Christmas holiday binge-watching the 10-part Netflix series "Making a Murderer." Ten years in the making, the documentary follows the case of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Lets spend our time together today looking at some words that sound alike but have different meanings. Apprise means to inform. For example: ...
NBC HARDBALL Sunbeam Television owner Ed Ansin says NBC offered him roughly $200 million for the license, facilities, and equipment at WHDH-7-NBC in Boston (Market #7). When he rejected the offer in September, NBC ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Poor little "me" is so misunderstood. Dont be afraid to use it. You wont sound less educated if you use "me" where it ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." You may work full time at your job. The Surly Editor and Mrs. B work part time at their jobs. How do you ...
PLAYED BY THE PEACOCK The dysfunctional management team at NBC has taken its share of guff over the years, but it deserves an Emmy? nomination for the way it smooth-talked twin-egos Sam Champion and ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Diffuse means to spread, as in: ~The photog used a screen to diffuse the light. Defuse means, literally, to remove the fuse, as ...
HEAVY AIR TRAFFIC Marcel Hirscher, the four-time reigning World Cup overall champion and the man widely considered the worlds best Alpine skier, was nearly hit by a camera drone in the middle of a ...
HARRY CALLS BULLSHIT Now we know the real reason Harry Porterfield wasnt around when CBS-owned WBBM-2 in Chicago (Market #3) announced his retirement last Thursday: He wasnt buying into it. In his first public ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B so enjoyed an article titled "6 Grammar Points To Watch Out for in Christmas Songs" in "Mental Floss" that shed like ...
HAUNTED BY MEMORIES Another day, another national news story about Chris Hurst, the anchor at WDBJ-7-CBS in Roanoke (Market #69) whose former girlfriend, reporter Alison Parker, was gunned down in late August on live ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Before we get to todays list of mispronunciations, submitted by readers, Mrs. B reminds you that winter officially begins tonight, with the winter ...
BUYING THE NEWS Reporters at the Las Vegas Review-Journal did a little investigating this week and uncovered the identity of the newspapers mysterious new owner. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and Republican power ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B hopes youll pay close attention to your pronunciation of these words. mastectomy: muh-STEK-tuh-mee, not muh-SEK-tuh-mee (Dont leave out the first "t.") ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B continues the series on some of the most common mispronunciations. jewelry: JEW-el-ry, not JEW-el-er-y. (It has just three syllables not four.) ...
TALE OF TWO CITIES A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of Baltimore Police Officer William Porter, after jurors said they had failed to agree on any of the charges against him ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Lets get started on another list of often-mispronounced words. dilate: DIE-LATE, not DIE-uh-LATE (Its a two-syllable word.) drowned: DROWND, not DROWNDED (Its a ...
DEBATABLE OUTCOME Wolf Blitzer and CNN made at least one thing very clear in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. The biggest problem with this years Republican debates was not manipulative moderators, or "cage match" ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B wants to spend her time with you this week on mispronunciations she wants you not to make. The word mispronunciation does ...
TRUMP TURNOFF Campbell Brown, the "Emmy? award-winning" former NBC correspondent and CNN talker, wrote a piece for Politico asking her media colleagues to ignore Donald Trump for a week. "As a former cable news ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Heres a recent headline from the L.A. Times: American adults get a D in science; 22% confuse astronomy and astrology Thats according to ...
RESISTING ARREST Last year, the politically constipated FCC finally grew a spine and cracked down on those (wink, wink) "sharing agreements" that have allowed big ownership groups like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Broadcasting ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." "Worser" is one of those words Mrs. B hopes will never come from your mouth or from your keyboard, unless its someones family ...
FOR BETTER OR WORSE Last month, John Ahrens, a meteorologist at Cox-owned WSOC-9-ABC in Charlotte (Market #22), spent a second weekend in jail, charged with violating a domestic violence protective order filed by his ...
MOTH TO A FLAME Mainstream media appears to have had it up to here with Donald Trump and is beginning to push back. In an unusually contentious appearance Tuesday on MSNBCs "Morning Joe," Joe ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Before we get to todays lesson, lets be sure youre pronouncing the name of German Chancellor Angela Merkel correctly: AHN-guh-luh MER-kul. Shes Times ...
MOVING THE LINE While it may seem as if cable news networks have had a particularly tough time in recent weeks policing the comments of unruly staffers, the networks are, in fact, built on ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B always appreciates lesson suggestions. Heres one from a friend in Maine: In listening to and watching coverage of the usual run ...
TRUMPED BY TRUMP In an attention-grabbing move over the summer, the Huffington Post decided to stop covering Donald Trump under its politics "vertical," instead determining that Trump was a "sideshow" unworthy of such solemn ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." A Sioux City producer makes a plea to Mrs. B: Could you please help me prove my colleagues wrong in that the word ...
SWARMING THE SCENE On Friday, Toby Harnden, a reporter for the Sunday Times, used the landlords crowbar and screwdriver to pry off a sheet of plywood the FBI had left behind to block the ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It commemorates the day in 1941 that more than 2000 Americans were left dead in Pearl Harbor, ...
MAYOR ZUCKER After two years as president of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker can see the handwriting on the wall. His employment contract is not a long-term arrangement. In an interview with Buzzfeeds Ben Smith ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B appreciates what new owner Jeff Bezos has done to make the Washington Post more accessible, and shes trying to come to ...
BROKEN NEWS When breaking news broke out yesterday in California, MSNBCs BREAKING NEWS anchor was at home, watching it on TV. Brian Williams underwent back surgery earlier this week to repair a herniated disc. ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B hopes youll remember that when you use an abbreviation, the choice of "a" or "an" depends on the sound of the ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." You find the principal in a school. Mrs. Bs elementary school principal used to say, "You can remember Im your principal by thinking ...
AND SO IT GOES Linda Ellerbee, a veteran newswoman who wrote an irreverent best-seller about her time on television and built a second career doing news for kids at Nickelodeon, says shes signing off ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." The International Monetary Fund has officially designated Chinas currency, the yuan, as one of the worlds reserve currencies. Pronounce yuanYOU-wan (rhymes with "con"). ...
LOCKED OUT The new owners at Cumulus Media unceremoniously dropped Geraldo Rivera from WABC-770-AM Radio over the Thanksgiving holiday while Rivera was in Paris with his family. "In locking me out of my studio ...
SHORT INTERVIEW Pat Brown, a well-known criminal profiler, was asked to appear on Sundays "New Day" on CNN to discuss the role the media has played in a recent rash of mass murders. Brown ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Comprise is one of those words that trips even the best of writers. Mrs. B wants you to take a look at this ...
MILLENNIAL FLOP After just two years on the job, Albie Hecht is out as executive vice president and general manager of HLN. In a memo announcing Hechts departure, CNN boss Jeff Zucker said HLN ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. Mrs. B hopes if youre responsible for news graphics or web stories that youll capitalize both Thanksgiving and Day. ...
TIME WITH FAMILY Elisabeth Hasselbeck will leave cables top-rated morning show "Fox & Friends" by the end of the year to spend more time with her three children, the network announced Monday. "Throughout my ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Today Mrs. B wants you to look at torturous and tortuous. That second "r" in torturous makes the difference in their meanings. Torturous ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." A California GM writes Mrs. B about one of his pet peeves: … producers who use "notoriety" when they mean "fame." As in, ...
POLITICALLY INCORRECT Students at Smith College, a private liberal arts college for women in Massachusetts, held a sit-in last Wednesday to protest racial discrimination. But they didnt want a repeat of that ugly episode ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B wants you to look at two sets of words that are often confused and misused. To indicate something indirectly is to ...
UNNECESSARILY PARTISAN Elise Labott, CNNs global affairs correspondent, was handed a two-week suspension yesterday for tweeting: "House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees. Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish." CNN, apparently, considered ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B wants you to look at this sentence in a story about an Illinois law that requires cities with less than 10 ...
SCUD DUD REVISITED Remember Arthur Kent, the Canadian-born former NBC News foreign correspondent who acquired the nickname "Scud Stud" when he reported during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, often going live as Iraqi Scud ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Squash is a kind of vegetable (though from a botanical standpoint, its a fruit). And squash is a racket sport thats played with ...
BUYING SPREE On the same day Nexstar Broadcasting agreed to reopen negotiations on its unsolicited bid for Media General, Nexstar announced the purchase of four local TV stations owned by West Virginia Media Holdings. ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Instead of wordy phrases, Mrs. B hopes youll start using simpler ones. Instead of "as a means to," say to. Instead of "at ...
BACK AND FORTH Media General unanimously rejected a $1.85 billion buyout offer from Nexstar Broadcasting on Monday because it "significantly" undervalued Media General. But the two sides agreed to engage in private negotiations, even ...
LIVE FROM THE BUSHES CNN came dangerously close to violating journalism ethics regarding hostage-taking situations and terrorist events Friday in Paris by live-broadcasting French counter-terrorism measures as they were happening. CNN producer Pierre Buet ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." "Utilize" is a useless word for people who are trying to show off. It means the same thing as use. Most of the ...
DOLLARS AND SENSE The 11-member Media General board of directors will meet today in Richmond, VA to hear from company advisers, who are reportedly set to recommend opening negotiations with Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B recently heard "broadcasted" on her local public radio station. The university broadcast journalism student anchoring a newscast didnt know that the ...
