RE: writing for radio-- a lost art?

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@shoreham.net>]

Steve writes:
grammar so bad as to obscure what
>the writer was
>trying to say?  And some of these are college grads!  These
>are the people
>who are our news reporters today.

And check out the problem/story with the new airport screener hiring
problem.  $32K FEDERAL jobs (good jobs at good wages?) waiting for
people to simply pass a simple math, reading and spelling test.  In my
job, I occasionally administer the WRAT (a standardized test for this,
likely similar to the one used for that purpose) and with "scaling" or
accommodating for age and education level, the failing percentage is a
concerning news story that is not getting a lot of national or regional
coverage.  And the goal is to hire 4,000 per week through the early
November deadline.  Although NPR did a good job on it this morning,
there's a prime example of how a story on how degraded educational
outcomes and trending can not only impact upon our national security but
on just how we're learning of the problem from the media.  So, just how
many decent bylines do you suspect could be crafted to address the
national catastrophe of literacy coupled with that of  the next big
bang?  Nah, no story there.  Might hit too close to home with today's
crop (n.b. spelling) of reporters.

Bill O'Neill