Thursday, June 16, 2005

NYT's purple prose (poetry?)

A Washington Post reporter has hammered The New York Times's India correspondent Somini Sengupta, for among other things, her purple prose.

<>(http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2005/05/somini-sengupta-new-york-times-in.html) <>

Why just Sengupta? All NYT reporters fashion such doggerels ad nauseam. I'm on paragraph four or five of a page one story and I'm thinking, "Hello? Where's the news? Where's this going? Where is the 'why' this story is being written?" Such stories have become so tiresome that I have stopped reading anytime a story begins something like this: <>
It is early, just 10 am,

but the African sun

is already high

in the sky,

when Kwame sits on his haunches

after his morning munchies,

under a baobab tree to defecate

and contemplate his fate.

I have been forced to use annoying 'colour' leads many a time even when I'm writing a business story, but at least I 'try' and make the colour somewhat relevant and 'try' and keep it to a minimum. This 'colouring' of news stories is a horrendous and dangerous trend me(humbly)thinks. Wait? Trend? It has already become the norm.

<> More rants on the NYT to follow --they will never hire me, so why not-- if any of you are interested.

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