Joke:
Moe: “Hey Joe: What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?”
Joe: “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
We talked in 2021 about people who make mistakes of geography, history and anatomy. You’ve seen videos on comedy shows of “reporters” going out on the street and asking people the most basic questions; Is New York north of Atlanta? What country bombed Pearl Harbor? Where’s your collarbone? And stumping them.
Perhaps the general public doesn’t feel the same pressure as professional journalists and authors. Except sometimes it seems there’s not a lot of motivation by anyone to get it right.

• Recently, teams faced off in Miami for the World Baseball Classic. People didn’t have to be a citizen of a country to play for it. A player could have been born there or have a parent who was a citizen or native. That didn’t stop announcers from saying “Nicaraguan” or “Dominican” for all players on those teams. Including those who now are naturalized American citizens. Or whose parents or grandparents came from those countries but the player was born here. And, of course, some announcer invariably would describe the American possession of Puerto Rico, which is permitted to field a team, as a separate country. It’s not.

• “Prigozhin and Putin go way back, with both born in Leningrad, what is now St. Petersburg.”
  “Now” suggests a new name. But the city was founded as St. Petersburg, and called that for two centuries, then changed to Petrograd and then Leningrad, and then changed back to St. Petersburg. So: “…both born in St. Petersburg during the time the Soviets had renamed it Leningrad.”

• “ New development will rise to dizzying heights — and wipe out their trailer park.”
  A trailer rides down the street, towed by a vehicle. A mobile home moves — when it does — only from one site to another, where it stays put. This was a mobile home park. Which is not a trailer park.

• (Prosecutor) interrogates witness under oath.”
  You don’t need the words “under oath” because, umm, all witnesses are under oath. (Also, the headline suggests the prosecutor, not the witness, was under oath.)

• “The city.”
  This is a New York thing, so we’re going to lose this battle. New York City comprises five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Nevertheless, many New Yorkers — including some relatives of the “Horribly Wrong” team — think of Manhattan as “the city,” and will tell you they are driving from Brooklyn to “the city,” even though they already are in the city.

• “(The death) was initially reported to be from natural causes, but his death certificate has revealed the actor actually died of heart disease.”
  This might be our winner. Heart disease isn’t a natural cause? Perhaps this was written by someone for whom English is not the first language. Or maybe it was created by AI. Brave new world!

• Adolph Hitler.

  Adolf Hitler is the subject of scores of books and movies and has become the go-to metaphor for any modern-day autocrat. Despite that, a recent search of newspapers.com finds a staggering 285,000-plus instances, dating to 1922, of newspapers spelling his name Adolph.

Watch this on video: https://youtu.be/PAaTDFeasoA?si=YlqjheGMYb8TBNoU

Next time: The Oscars of cliches.

Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong" features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police.” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, menus, TV news graphics, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we can credit you properly. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com

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NOTE: Eliot and Lou Ann are available for speaking engagements, and can travel. Reach us through the comments section. Just think of all of your employees getting back to work on a Monday, their heads filled with all the ways we’ve shown them to be better communicators!