SFist: Vice at the Chron

elvid

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:45:25 -0800

How about the vice of repeatedly using an unidentified "we." It's annoying and insulting to readers. Do you do this when speaking too? Seriously, this ain't the 1950's.

SteveIst

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:31:10 -0800

Yes, English is imprecise, but the Chron did use an extremely uncommon, though marginally acceptable, variant of the spelling. We have modern language associations to recommend usage in the interest of clarity, and copy editors to encourage conformance to their usage recommendations.

Generik

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:36:59 -0800

I've been a long-time Chron reader, and I've noticed quite an uptick in the number of typos that get past the editors lately. Why, if I had a nickel for every typo I've seen in that paper in the past two years, I'd have... a shitload of nickels.

jaja007

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:20:05 -0800

Poor beleaguered bloggers. Always criticized for their own carelessness, lack of fact checking, bad spelling and grammar (hello Jen Chung, Jen Carlson, etc. etc.), and always miffed because they are not taken seriously as real journalists (though they desperately want to be, even though they do nothing deserving of that respect). So when they get a chance to criticize what they derisively call "old media", they literally jump at the chance, only to prove themselves incapable once again of being taken seriously for all the same reasons.

SFist_Jonathan

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:56:33 -0800

One never has the last word in a debate about words, but once again we refer to Merriam-Webster: Etymology (noun): the history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found [...] Vice: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin vitium fault, vice. Vise: Middle English vys, vice screw, from Anglo-French vyz, from Latin vitis vine. And thanks, jaja007 -- we can also spell pedant as pædent, but this doesn't mean that we should.

Grrg

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:33:06 -0800

Yes, you're wrong about the spelling thing, but also: that's not what the word "etymologically" means. (You wanted the word "definitionally" or something.)

jaja007

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:15:07 -0800

Actually, "any of various tools for holding work that close usually by a screw, lever, or cam." can also be spelled correctly as "Vice". You didn't research deeply enough. See: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=vice&db=luna You have to scroll far down the page.

redseca2

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:16:43 -0800

I am a long time subscriber. When I first arrived in SF the paper delivery person had a key to the building I lived in and it would be in front of my door every morning - on the 4th floor. That luxury ended like 20 years ago and the Chron was simply thrown into the building entry, inside the security gate. You can track the decline of the printed newspaper, and the changes in SF civility, by the issues I have dealt with since then. In the '90's the biggest problem was street people stealing your paper to resell. Several times I caught some loser in the act of using a stick to tease the newspapers out through the security gate to where they could grab them. The advent of the Bush years brought some snarky early 20 somethings into the building, living 8 to the same size flat you shared with one person. Now newspaper theft was an inside job and the first one out got the paper. Fortunately they were on slacker time. Today, the kids are gone to be replaced by the mysterious, never observed "kicker" who kicks all the newspapers out onto the sidewalk (Ashbury near Haight). You really, really know that no one cares about newspapers anymore because they will sit on the sidewalk, 2 or 3 Chrons, a WSJ or two, and a Financial Times all day and no one bothers to take them.

Angrybat

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:11:48 -0800

If the Obama administration were in Vice, the whole government thing would be a lot more interesting.

adamjackson

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:55:43 -0800

I subscribed to the chronicle as well. Trying to do what I can to keep it alive. plus just pennies a day sounds pretty enticing.