Anal Reporting: Heinous vs. Anus
May 28, 2009 by Shannon
Boy, do I love funny typos. But this one is truly heinous.
Had I read this script on air, it would have caused me massive embarrassment. The kind of embarrassment that lands you on YouTube for millions of people to laugh at.
So here’s the deal: in the world of TV news, it’s a collaborative effort. A variety of people — producers, anchors and reporters — write scripts for anchors to read. In this particular instance, a reporter (who will remain unnamed) wrote me a brief intro that I was to read before “tossing” to him.
The story was pretty shocking. A family cat disappeared — all but its tail. That was found in its owner’s mailbox.
Before we get to the typo, here’s a good example of some bad writing. The setup line:
The Garden City cat owner whose tail was cut off and left with a vicious note is afraid to check her mailbox.
As you can see from the photo, the setup line left me thinking huh? The Garden City cat owner’s tail was cut off? She’s afraid to check her mailbox and find her own tail in there? WHAT? Makes no sense.
But it gets worse.
Oh yes. Much, much, MUCH worse.
The reporter goes on to write the “toss” as follows:
Fox 12’s (name withheld) spoke to the owner today… It sounds like the anus crime is haunting the family.
Anus. The anus crime. OMG.
I’m pretty sure the reporter meant to say heinous. But why not spell it more like heynous? Or haynus? Anus!?! I mean, really. The thing is — the spelling is so far off here, I don’t know that you can really classify it as a typo. It is a blatant error. And it kinda makes me wonder, did the reporter realize heinous and anus are two entirely different words???
Luckily, I caught this grave error before I discovered it live, on the air, via teleprompter. Because let’s face it — some typos are only funny when they happen to other people.
Comments (7)
Well, wait a sec. If that cat’s “tail” was cut off, isn’t that an “anus” crime? Maybe the reporter was going for a play on words. C’mon Shannon. Didn’t you take an oral interpretation classes?
LOL
Thanks, I just choked on my water. I needed that funny moment. Busy stressing over a job interview tomorrow.
I saw your site mentioned on Fox 12. I think it was your last night. Good for you for doing this. You won’t regret it. I stayed at home with my kids. Now I’m back in the workforce but I don’t have skills like yours. My youngest is 15 and his 3 older sisters have all graduated high school. Time flies, it seems like yesterday that they started kindergarten and now they are talking college.
I feel like in Broadcast Journalism school again! I so miss those days of reading bad typos like this. Oh, man… hilarious!
P.S. Does this writer still work at FOX?
P.P.S. Now I’m totally nerveous every time I leave a comment for you. Note - I’m Canadian, so we spell things a bit differently, like nervous is really nerveous. Just so you know… but please, if I do make a terrible mistake, let me know, because I love laughing at myself, too!
OMG! I just noticed a typo - “I feel like in Broadcast Journalism school again!”
Clearly, I meant: “I feel like I’m in Broadcast Journalism school again!”
Er… sorry!
Thanks for the comments, everyone! Keep ‘em coming!
Loukia, you’re so funny. If I ever spot you making typos, I’ll let you know before I blog about it. Maybe.
Just kidding. All my friends say the same thing — be nice! And I don’t think I’ve embarrassed anyone too terribly. I hope.
And for the record, I believe this reporter is no longer in the business.
i know who the reporter is as soon as you said “he” :). It’s not like fox has had many male reporters that were not anchors as well.
It’s sounds a little like “Anchorman: The legend of Ron Burgundy”. Think someone was trying to mess with your teleprompter so to speak? By the way do Anchor people find that movie funny?