Monday, May 5, 2014

Look before you read?

I always thought that when teams in a competition reach the semi-finals, the two winners face off in the finals (for gold and silver) while the respective losers fight in their face-off for the bronze. So both ST's and Channel NewsAsia's stories (May 5) puzzled me:



Table Tennis: S'pore women's team get bronze after 0-3 loss to China

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/table-tennis-s-pore-women/1094382.html

In the other women's semi-final, also played on Sunday, Japan trounced Hong Kong 3-1. In the women's finals played today (Monday, May 5), China beat Japan 3-0.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/table-tennis-china-sweep/1095692.html

So what puzzles me is: Why was there no play-off between Singapore and Hong Kong to determine who gets the women's bronze? But, then, I have to plead ignorance about the rules of table tennis.

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I am on much surer grounds when I spot a lack of effort by the headline writer in this ST story (May 5)...

This is what the text of the reporter's introduction said:


And this is what the headline for the same story said:


Maybe ST should invest in a computer program to automatically write the headlines. (I am reminded of GIGO, ie, Garbage In, Garbage Out.)

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I noticed a tendency -- not just in ST but in the other local newspapers too -- to call every Tom, Dick and Harry an "expert". So, now there is a "POSB expert" (same event as above but in an inside page story). POSB expert? What's that!...


I suspect a degree of cluelessness on the part of the copy processors. POSB is the Post Office Savings Bank which once upon a time was a true national savings bank for the ordinary people. I hazard a guess that Mr Stanz Tan is some sort of authority on the workings of savings banks (as opposed to commercial banks). But it takes a leap of absurdity to then call him a POSB expert.

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Since I am picking holes, here's more:

  
  ...a rare star who cares about those around him. Hmmm. What does this say about the majority of Mr Png's fellow Mediacorp actors?


...but neither Oxford nor Cambridge nor MIT... Why stop there? Why not throw in a few more "nor's"?


The correct preposition is "at" or "along". Incidentally, did anyone else notice that there were six adults in the car? It was later identified as a Volkswagen Golf, a sub-compact.

This next one is from TODAY:

  
 How many mums are we supposed to have? This example above is the cover page of a supplement. An inside page, thankfully, redeemed itself:


Finally, I am not sure if this example below had been doctored but we can have a good laugh at Mr Abbott's expense. I am sure as an Aussie bloke, he has a great sense of humour:


Note: 3AW is a Melbourne news organisation.

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