Ignorant News Anchors

Okay, I haven't looked at the story, so I won't comment on it yet, but this weekend some high school kid shot up a bunch of family members and acquaintances. This morning one of the news anchors was talking about it, and mentioned that the guy used a twenty-two caliber rifle (.22).

It reminded me of the Beltway "Sniper" incidents, in which the anchors said, and several times, and several different anchors, "high-powered twenty-two rifle". Wrong. The Beltway "Snipers" used a .223, which is a caliber that's pretty much completely unrelated to the twenty-two caliber. It's not like the .223 caliber is a higher powered version of the .22 caliber; but no, that didn't stop these anchors from making asses out of themselves, and regularly.

You see it every now and again, particularly with anything that requires a modest degree of research or specialized knowledge. Save for the "military analysts" that they have on there all the time, pretty much every reporter/anchor butchers military subjects on a regular basis.

Frustrating? You betcha. These folks work for two, three hours a day, tops. The least they can do is some damned research about what's going on, beyond what their ignorant colleagues have written.