WACD and WATK are still advertising for a “Radio Account
Executive” in the Antigo Daily Journal’s help-wanted ad section.
In fact, that ad usually IS the help-wanted section. They’ve been
looking to fill this job for… how long? Seems like two or three years
now. I nominate whomever writes the police bulletin and local
feature stories for the ADJ for the job. Here’s a couple of examples
to put on the job application:
Oct 24, “Crews begin work on new KFC>…”
See http://www.antigodailyjournal.com/full.php?id=9448 to read this gem for yourself.
“Doug Smith, a Merrill businessman, has a crew setting the
footings to construct a new Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell
franchise at North Avenue and Neva Road, the site of a chicken
restaurant until the structure was raised earlier this year.”
While the correct expression would be “the structure was razed”,
even that fix would not save the breathless run-on construction of
this unfocused alleged sentence.
The story ends with a set of “and-spliced” sentences, of course.
That’s a requirement listed in the ADJ Style Manual, I believe.
Oct 26, “Deer ’shiners’ may be in trouble, had gun”
“Reports compiled by the Langlade County Sheriff’s Department
indicated that the pair had been shining for deer and when stopped
for questioning, a firearm was found in the vehicle.”
Another “and-splice”, compounded by a disjointed participial
phrase hooked to an ambiguous reference in passive voice, for our
confused readership. A firearm was stopped for questioning?
Maybe it’s wrong to criticize ADJ’s hilarious writing gaffes. It could
be that the ADJ is in fact a long-running satirical publication,
actually intended to be a humorous jab at small-town newspaper
shortcomings. At least, that could explain Fred’s space-devouring
“Bits and Pieces” thing, you know.
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This Antigo Daily Journal sounds like beginners of reporting. I have been all over the United States and this paper takes the award of poor reporting and publishing cut up stories and or stopped in the middle of writing. Also have notice there has been a lot repeats of your articles and Very Late reporting of items out of state and/or country.
The paper needs more interesting articles with better information. There are times too of events happening reported after it had happened. No wonder why our residents do not show up at certain events, because they not informed in a proper matter.
I rest my case.
ADJ’s announcements and notices typically offer the helpful news that the event will happen at something like “7:00pm this evening”…. This is not very useful for mail subscribers.
I noticed that over the last couple of days the long-long running “Radio Account Executive” ad has disappeared. Interestingly, so have any other “help wanted” ads. Antigo must be fully recovered from the recession, if no one needs to hire, anymore.
I completely agree. I read the ADJ for entertainment rather than for actual news items. The grammar and sentence construction is so poor! I think Mr. Berndt writes most of the “feature” articles, and the guy needs serious lessons in sentence structure, not to mention lessons on what synonyms and homonyms are!
When I worked for the ADJ a few years ago, the gal that did the proofreading, had worked there for 20+ years and was making $7 hour.
What they pays their employees is a dirty shame. As for be unbiased as a NEWSPAPER should….they about as unbiased as FOXNEWS…what a joke !
Apparently there is some strong validity to old saw that “You get what you pay for”. The copy editor must work for free, and police and local news writer probably pays Fred for the privilege of getting into print.
What really bugs me is that all the “Society” of Antigo are the ones who get mentioned all the time. The McKenna’s along with pictures are mentioned everytime they burp.”They are visiting family in China, they biked across Ireland, their father was a great ol’ family doctor & on & on & on”. And not just the McKenna’s. Pay attention to all of Fred’s friend who make the paper on a regular basis. There are 3 categories of people who get a lot of press from the ADJ. Rich people, his friends & rich friends.
I also can’t figure out the replication of all the obituaries. Some people die 3 times in the ADJ! Why would they put it in the paper more than once? Do they not have a proofreader? Is his staff afraid to speak up when they see a screw-up??
I would have to agree with that. You see it with traffic tickets too. You never see any of the “Society” names in that section. I have seen them getting tickets though.
Not sure if there is any truth to this or not, but I heard at one time (more than a few years ago) that you can pay Fred not to put your name in the paper if you get a ticket. Again, I am not accusing anyone of anything, just stating something that I had heard at one time.