RE: WOTY on CNN

[Dave Wilton]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of RonButters at AOL.COM
> Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 9:57 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re:       WOTY on CNN
>
>
> In a message dated 1/7/03 10:16:56 AM, Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:
>
>
> > I can't understand when the same journalists are approached
> by the work of a
> > member such as me, and they don't even respond.
> >
> Surely there is a lesson here, if we could only see what it is.

Maybe if we added a WOTY category of "Etymological Debunking of the Year"
the media would take notice of at least some of Barry's work.

Or maybe ADS ought to issue periodic press releases of significant
linguistic and etymological discoveries (or Barry could create an
"institute" and do it himself). Most reporters don't do any real research or
fact checking. They just regurgitate press releases. (Or to be charitable,
the editors get story ideas from press releases and then tell reporters to
investigate.) Don't attempt to correct them when they're wrong--no one likes
to be shown up. You have to get in front and create a story that they can
report on--the story isn't that they have been wrong about "Windy City" all
these years, it's that someone has just discovered the true origin; never
mind that the truth has been known for over fifty years. That's how the
White House and public advocacy groups manipulate the media.