Unca Darrell

MAY 23 / Why won't David Dewhurst sit down with the Clever Ones?

THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE seems genuinely hurt that GOP Senate candidate David Dewhurst, like that rascal Rick Perry back in 2010, has declined an invitation to share three cups of tea with the editorial board. And genuinely confused about why he won't.  

It's not that complicated, fellas. Mr. Dewhurst sent his regrets because . . .  

MAY 18 / You've probably already heard, but if not . . .

. . . J.P. and Lana are back! 

MAY 14 / Maybe this is why Houston Chronicle . . .

. . . editorialists refuse to celebrate the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving. 

MAY 10 / At last, a good editorial about the EPA's crucifixion complex

UNFORTUNATELY, it was in another liberal newspaper, not our very own Houston Chronicle.

Maybe Al Armendariz -- until Monday, one of the Environmental Protection Agency's top administrators -- didn't mean his comments to sound quite how they did. But they didn't sound good. In a 2010 speech . . . Mr. Armendariz compared his "philosophy of enforcement" to ancient Roman soldiers' practice of crucifying random victims in a recently conquered territory. 

MARCH 31 / Style, usage, journalism

Fact checking: calling things by their right name

As the reality of [R. Allen] Stanford's Ponzi scheme came to light three years ago, watchers and whistleblowers claimed that the Security [read Securities] and Exchange Commission was well aware of potential problems with Stanford's business. (Editorial, "The Stanford verdict," Houston Chronicle, March 7, 2012)

This mistake had to go through at least one writer and one editor, neither of whom was sufficiently familiar with the 78-year-old SEC to know its proper name. It's bad journalism, of course, but also faintly ironic: A newspaper that promotes big government should at least bother to keep up with the names of the many agencies it loves, even when, as here, one proves unworthy. 

Straitjacket

I'll get my way even if I have to put the entire process in a straight jacket [read straitjacket]! (Nick Anderson, editorial cartoon about City Council member Helena Brown, Houston Chronicle, March 4, 2012)

Garner: "The strait in this word means 'close-fitting.' Straightjacket is a common but undesirable variant for straitjacket."

Notice that Mr. Anderson not only got straight/strait wrong but also incorrectly split the compound word -- straight jacket instead of straightjacket. These mistakes disappeared when the cartoon migrated from chron.com to the printed newspaper, but as I write the version on chron.com is still wrong.

I'll leave it to the Chronicle's high sheriff of civility to sort out the propriety of using mental illness as a descriptive category for a disfavored politician. And the logic of applying that label to a lone conservative when the left provides such a target-rich environment of candidates for the honor. 

Stylebooks

All writers need help. Careful writers need it most because they understand the difficulties. To Garner, Chicago, and the other standards, add The Economist Style Guide. It's $50 at the Economist's Web site; less than $20 at amazon.com. The newspaper -- as the Economist calls itself -- also has a delicious blog on matters of style and usage. Here is a righteous takedown of Rush Limbaugh's apology to Sandra Fluke. The February 25 issue of the print version of the Economist said the stylebook was online at economist.com/stylebook. As I write, it's not there. Maybe the posting has been delayed.

FEBRUARY 29 / Style, usage, journalism

Fact-Checking a Benighted NYT Columnist

Although it is unlikely that Thomas Jefferson ever read the writings of [Roger] Williams when he was formalizing the separation of church and state in the Constitution, he was, nonetheless, influenced by him . . . . (Joe Nocera, "A Revolutionary Idea," New York Times, February 24, 2012)

Thomas Jefferson did not write, much less . . .

FEBRUARY 7 / What's wrong with this news account . . .

. . . of a trial and jury verdict?  

FEBRUARY 2 / Yet more legal (and journalistic) malpractice . . .

. . . at the Houston firm of Sweeney, Cohen, Wilburn, Jetton, Newkirk, Langworthy, Fleck & Gray.

In today's otherwise forgettable editorial ramble through GOP presidential politics -- "arguably, Romney has seized the momentum . . . ." -- the Clever Ones at the Chronicle said: 

JANUARY 9 / Body count shows Chronicle's deep bias

ONE DEFENSE of the thoroughgoing liberalism of the Houston Chronicle's miserable editorial board is that conservatives get a fair shake on the op-eds. That's the newspaper's idea of balance: Hire not one local right-leaning opinionator; just rent a conservative from the national syndicates every now and again. 

But there is no balance among the Chronicle's op-eds. The left end of the seesaw is heavy in numbers, light in common sense and, in some cases, decency. The right end is . . .

JANUARY 6 / Are they talking about the same guy?

Comparing four newspaper ledes on the death of Kim Jong Il offers a useful primer on the shortcomings of the Houston Chronicle and New York Times and the relatively better work at the Washington Post (where, at least, the liberals are adults and editors still demand journalism) and the generally excellent Wall Street Journal. 

Absurdly gentle

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader . . .