"...Thank you for joining Harold and I"...

[SoCalDem]

arrrrrghhhh.. When will news anchors learn to speak with proper grammar?? That one just gives me a "fingernails-on-blackboard" moment..

Would she say "Thank you for joining I?"....come on folks, you make bazillions of dollars a year to display your mug on tv... please, I'm begging, learn some grammar..:)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Used to be ENGLISH classes were part of a journalism degree

[MSchreader]

4. Who on earth ever said

Television personalities are journalists? They are high-brow eye candy -- nothing more.

(Yes, Aaron Brown, that means you too.)

Martin

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Sorry Martin!

but I did day USED TO BE..

[arwalden]

8. When Journalism Was My Major...

It WAS a requirement. English Lit helped too. But, that was about 25 years ago.

Me thanks you for posting this thread and for giving I a chance to participate.

-- Allen

[Dookus]

2. aargh.... too

That's one of my biggest peeves. It just sounds SOOOO wrong to me! I usually find it's spoken by people are who are TRYING to sound educated, and failing miserably.

[BurtWorm]

3. TV journalists dropping articles, forms of to be, speaking in headlinese

This trend making me want to throttle them. Even Nick What's-his-face, British guy in Iraq on CNN, abusing the language this way, according to eyewitness, namely me.

[wtmusic]

6. I saw a Kerry website quote that used the same construction

NO, it's not a flame, we all have our moments.

He used the expression "for my wife and I, the most important thing...". To his staff's credit, when I emailed them I got a thank you and got the damn thing changed!

All I ask is a low-level cabinet post...

[RebelOne]

7. Yes, that drives me up a wall.

I'm a copyeditor and have to correct grammar in magazine articles and that is such a common mistake.

[dofus]

9. I am also driven crazy

by that construction.

The other one is the improper use of lie and lay.

Lay means "to put or place" and is a transitive verb, meaning it takes a direct object. You lay something. Or someone, if you're using it in the colloqual sense which means to have sex. The past tense form is laid, the past participle (the form which takes a helper verb) is laid.

Lie, which means "to rest or recline" is an instransitive verb, needs no direct object. (To lie as in to tell an untruth doesn't cause much confusion)

Here's a link which explains much more succinctly than I can.

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/lielay01.html

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. Grammar definitely counted back in the dark ages when I was in J-school.

Also had a heavy English Lit course requirement, approximately as many as Journalism courses.

[E_Zapata]

11. shoot, I thought this would be a Harold & Maude thread

in time for a funky halloween...

[MaineDem]

12. Thank you for posting this

I find it annoying, as well. When people are paid to speak they should be speaking correctly.

[NicoleM]

13. even more annoying

is when I say "Harold and me" and somebody tries to correct me. :mad:

Our local station always punctuates its graphics like this:

More snow on the way...
or
More snow on the way???
or
More snow on the way!!!

Drives me up a freakin' wall. I've emailed them about it several times but they either don't get it or don't care.