I don’t know why I ever watch the news.  Newscasters–both national and local–provide daily examples of terrible grammar and word usage.  I can only surmise that the people who hire the on-air talent have equally poor English-speaking skills, so don’t realize what incompetent people they hire.

While preparing dinner tonight, I heard all of the following in less than 30 minutes of newscasting:

• A water main connecting the city water line to multiple housing units broke today.  This is an expensive repair and the question was “Who is responsible for the repair bill?”  Unfortunately, the private property owners will have to bear the cost.  Miss Woo-girl gave us a phone number to call if we want to find out whether or not our house is under a similar multiple-residence water main.  Question:  How many houses does she think are under a water main?

• Mr. Handsome then introduced the next story by telling us “A family was shattered by a bullet today.”  I couldn’t help picturing a family broken into pieces like a porcelain vase, and wondered how a single bullet could do that to humans.  (Making this a ridiculously inaccurate sentence.)  More information told us that two siblings were playing with a loaded gun in the house and one shot and killed the other–a seventeen-month-old toddler.  While the family’s peace of mind might have been figuratively shattered, the family members were still physically intact.  Note:  I sympathize with what this family is feeling now, but I think they deserved a much better and more accurate lead-in line to this story, such as “A family is grieving today . . . .”

• Finally, back to Miss Woo-girl to introduce the weather.  It was 98 degrees today and a cold front is coming through, so thunderstorms are popping up in the area.  Miss Woo-girl transferred narration duties to the weatherman with the line, “So, Chris, tell us about those severe storms out there.”  Thankfully, the weather man is probably 20 years older than Miss Woo-girl and knows his stuff.  He gently corrected her by saying that none of the storms is actually severe, although a few are stronger than others.  Note:  I know from Ted that when there is a severe weather watch or warning in effect, all civil defense entities are notified so that appropriate actions can be taken for public safety.  This involves everything from blowing sirens to notifying hospitals and strategically placing ambulances and fire trucks in the affected area.  Trained storm spotters and ham radio operators are called in to assist with observations and communications, and extra employees go on duty in a vast assortment of community agencies.  I get frustrated when TV people imply that just because there’s thunder, the storm is severe.  They use the word “severe” so often–even to let us know when the storms are not severe–that they are like the boy who cried wolf.  I’m afraid people will begin to tune out the word “severe” and will not take heed when it’s important for their safety.

Yes, I’ve got to stop watching the news.  (But I probably won’t, because it provides me with a plethora of examples of English language ignorance.)