First there were Crash Blossoms (new coinage); now there are Crash Possums: What is a Crash Possum? You ask. It's a mis-spelled CNN headline on the CNN TV screen, maybe a headline under a talking head or a headline in the news crawl below the video images: CNN obviously has trouble hiring competent copyeditors to type in the correct words with the correct spelings. Those CNN mis-spellings (and on any network as well) are called CRASH POSSUMS
First there were Crash Blossoms (new coinage); now there are Crash Possums: What is a Crash Possum? You ask. It's a mis-spelled CNN headline on the CNN TV screen, maybe a headline under a talking head or a headline in the news crawl below the video images: CNN obviously has trouble hiring competent copyeditors to type in the correct words with the correct spelings. Those CNN mis-spellings (and on any network as well) are called CRASH POSSUMS
They are called CRASH POSSUMS because they arrive on our TV screens "dead on arrival" like possums that were run over on a rural road or highway....
This is what we have spotted on CNN recently:
Sliver lining in AGW
Competiting for gold
Harbey Kushner (they meant to type Harvey Kushner)
Marshall law lifted in Philippines
A look at who's competiting in Vancouver
THESE CRASH POSSUMS HAPPEN TO APPEAR ON CNN TV SCREENS EVERY DAY!
Please send in more and document what date and what time they appeared.
Maybe CNN's copydesk, if it has one, will start working harder!
To learn more about crash possums, google CRASH BLOSSOMS.
They are called CRASH POSSUMS because they arrive on our TV screens "dead on arrival" like possums that were run over on a rural road or highway....
This is what we have spotted on CNN recently:
Sliver lining in AGW
Competiting for gold
Harbey Kushner (they meant to type Harvey Kushner)
Marshall law lifted in Philippines
A look at who's competiting in Vancouver
THESE CRASH POSSUMS HAPPEN TO APPEAR ON CNN TV SCREENS EVERY DAY!
Please send in more and document what date and what time they appeared.
Maybe CNN's copydesk, if it has one, will start working harder!
To learn more about crash possums, google CRASH BLOSSOMS.
posted by dan at 3:13 AM
6 Comments:
What's Up With All the Misspelling??
Sunday, May 24, 2009
filed under: karyn bryant
Karyn Bryant:
The other day I received a postcard advertising an infant center/preschool. Since Aurora's all set for the fall, I'm no longer looking; but if I were, I would never send my kid to this one. Why? Because they call themselves the "Nu Building Blocks" school, and in my book, if you can't even spell "New" correctly, then there's no way in hell I'm going to trust you to teach my child.
Getty Images
Deliberate misspelling has been a pet peeve of mine forever. I wasn't even that old when Toys R Us came on the scene, but I was really irked by that "R" instead of "Are." (Don't get me started on the whole backwards "R" thing.) I cringe every time I see a Kids Klub somewhere, and I hated Bratz on principle even before I saw that they looked like hookers. As much as I love Play-Doh, I can't comprehend why the people at Hasbro are so mad at the letters "u" and "g."
I realize I might be taking this a little too seriously and should probably lighten up. I understand the desire for fun names, and I know that visually, the repetition of letters can make someone remember a product better. Sometimes misspelling is supposed to make us think a product is "edgy," but it just makes me crazy. Aren't we confusing our kids?
I wonder: are focus groups telling marketers that we prefer catchy to correct? Apparently they are. Maybe that's why our society seems to be getting "stupider."
I guess the Nu School does have one thing going for it though: location. It's right down the street from Krispy Kreme. Next to Tastee-Freez.
Karyn Bryant is a television personality who's hosted shows on networks such as CNN, TNT, VH1, and MTV. She's currently a reporter for Showtime Championship Boxing and CBS' Saturday Night Fights, and the EVP/Director of MMAheat.com, an online destination for fans of MMA and pop culture. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
Read more: http://www.momlogic.com/2009/05/karyn_bryant_school_mispellings.php#ixzz0cmDErUiv
at's Up With All the Misspelling?? | momlogic.com - 8:09pm
Finallly someone who also notices the increasing misspellings everywhere. CNN, CBC, NBC, google, AOL, PopEater, local news - misspelled words every day. ...
www.momlogic.com/.../karyn_bryant_school_mispellings.php - Cached - Similar -
finallly someone who also notices the increasing misspellings everywhere. CNN, CBC, NBC, google, AOL, PopEater, local news - misspelled words every day.
- ccvvggg
Posted 05/25/09 10:03 AM
Read more: http://www.momlogic.com/2009/05/karyn_bryant_school_mispellings.php#comments#ixzz0cmEjxf3M
crash possums
(n.) -- words that are spelled incorrrectly, for all the world to see, on TV broadcasts at CNN and other networks
"I've seen some real bloopers and howlers on CNN recently, where the headline writer spelled "competing" as "competiting" and things like that. Happens almost every day on my TV screen, all the networks do it. Don't they have copyeditors? I call them 'crash possums' because they remind me of dead possums on rural roads and highways."
-- Overheard outside a coffee shop in Harvard Square in Cambridge on January 8, 2010
by cnner101 on Jan 16, 2010
tags: television, books, headlines, copy, books, wires
3 Responses from Arnold Zwicky's good blog re to “Misspellings”
Benjamin Lukoff said:
January 18, 2010 at 9:20 pm | Reply
Interesting. Of course, it’s not that CNN, or any other network or media outlet is having “trouble hiring competent copyeditors.” It’s that they don’t want to pay for them. Copyeditors are being cut left and right. I wonder if *anyone* takes a look at the crawls before they go out other than the person typing them.
arnoldzwicky Says:
January 19, 2010 at 5:38 am | Reply
Following up on Ben Lukoff: I wonder if news crawls *ever* had copyeditors. It’s work that has to be done very fast, after all.
Benjamin Lukoff Says:
January 19, 2010 at 9:50 am | Reply
Good point, but there seem to be more and more errors lately. Are we just noticing them more; are there more crawls these days, period, thereby raising the number of ones with errors; or is a decline over time in the spelling abilities of 23-year-old new hires at TV stations?
you misspelled "spellings"
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