Online "news" intentionally misleading

I have touched on this before in this blog. And here is another example of what is wrong with the lack of real journalists working in online "news" environments.

A headline on AOL's home page today reads: "Is Tiger Woods Ready to Quit Golf?" The text below the headline says: "A report has surfaced that wife Elin has given him an ultimatum -- one that might not bode well for his career."

However, when you click on the story you find out that Woods quitting golf is just a rumor and a pretty far-fetched one at that, according to the writer. But in the online news world, the home-page headline and readout served its short-sighted purpose in that it got me to click to the full story, even if it did so by being blatantly misleading.

Unfortunately, AOL isn't the only site guilty of trickery disguised as real news. And just to be clear, I don't usually go to AOL, Yahoo or sites like that for news. However, I am beginning to see newspaper sites doing similar, unethical things in order to drive web traffic. And that's pretty disturbing to a lifelong editor such as myself. Ultimately, I think it will fail from a business standpoint.

My advice to these types of quasi-news web sites would be to hire professional journalists in order to increase credibility. People seeking legitimate news want to believe what they are reading. They don't want to read one thing on a home page and a completely different thing once they drill down into the site. Over the long haul, credibility is more important than tricking people to click headlines that are misleading. Solid, reliable and original content will build traffic, not juvenile gotcha headlines that refer to supermarket tabloid reports.

Update: Reports came out later in the day on numerous web sites stating that Tiger Woods is taking a temporary leave from golf. He's not quitting. I can't really understand why anyone would even speculate that he'd retire at a still relatively young age. Plenty of public figures, including athletes, entertainers and even politicians have been guilty of similar things that are alleged about Woods. Rarely does anyone ever quit over them unless they broke a law and are forced to. The money-making machine that is Tiger Woods will return to golf soon enough. Hopefully, the media won't glorify him quite as much when he gets back on the course. Athletes and others in powerful positions are often arrogant enough to think they can get away with anything and still maintain their public image. Yet few ever get through their various indiscretions without some exposure and scars ... just ask Bill Clinton, Wade Boggs, Gary Hart, Roger Clemens, Koby Bryant and a host of others.

E&P: More than just a magazine

Editor & Publisher magazine is closing down after 125 years of publication. The web site will also cease operations.

Probably unheard of by most of the population, E&P was the magazine of newspaper professionals. Even more popular than its stories about the business were its famous classified ads. Long before the internet explosion, this is where many young and not-so-young newspaper people went to look for a job. I began subscribing to it while still in college in 1979.

In part, I got my job at USA Today in 1995 by answering an ad in E&P. I also was hired by a Miami-area daily newspaper in 1980 and found an editing job in Meriden, Conn., in the mid-1980s thanks to the E&P classifieds.

With newspaper jobs drying up and layoffs continuing, my search for employment just got a little bit harder today as I still went to E&P to read about trends in the business and to peruse the help-wanted ads.

Read more about the E&P demise.

UFO or Russian missile?

A light appeared in the sky over Norway this week. A beam seemed to be coming from the spiral. As I said in a recent post, more strange images in the sky are likely to be photographed because of all the digital and security cameras in use now. Story/more pictures.

Tattoos still taboo in the office

According to a 2007 Pew Research Center study, 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 40 have at least one tattoo. As common as tattoos seem to be these days, that statistic surprised me. I figured the number would be lower.

I worked in a large office building with hundreds of employees, many of them in the 18-40 range, yet I can only think of a handful of people who had tattoos. I guess a lot of my former colleagues were in the tattoo closet.

It seems those with ink in their skin are still reluctant to show their body art in the workplace as this Washington Post article explains.

"D.C. is culturally one of the most conservative cities I've ever lived in," said Sarah Graddy (not pictured above) in the Post article. Graddy is 31 and has lived in Seattle, Los Angeles and Gainesville, Fla., before coming to Washington to work for the government. She has three tattoos. "I just see fewer people displaying body art in the workplace here."

I have no objection to tattoos unless they become an obsession. Not sure I'd feel comfortable with a dude in a nearby cubicle coming in with his face looking like bar code, but I'd probably get over it if the guy was a decent worker and relatively normal human being. Still, I would advise anyone seeking work not to openly display their tattoos during a job interview because there are still many employers who will pick apart everything about your appearance and jump to false conclusions. Might not be fair, but it's just the way things are. We've battled race and gender discrimination. We've become accepting of sexual orientation and provided considerations for handicapped workers. Yet, in our constant quest for fairness (some might say political correctness) we can't seem to conquer appearance discrimination. If you appear too old, too fat, too tattooed you will be at a disadvantage, particularly in certain professions in cities like Washington.

Seems to me that tattoos are like anything else that we do to ourselves to express a feeling, image or belief. People dye their hair to look young or for self expression. They wear tinted contacts or shave their heads to change their appearance. They have a cross or star around their necks to express religious beliefs. And when it's all done in moderation and isn't a clear sign of some more serious, underlying issues, I'm not sure why anyone would be offended. Of course, if Bob the banker has a swastika carved in his forehead, I'm probably going to open my meager savings account elsewhere.

There is something about tattoos, even "tasteful" ones, that still seems to draw a wider range of opinions and reactions, both positive and negative. With so many people now sporting tattoos, it won't be long before they become more visible in office.

"Men of a Certain Age" a winner

A new series, Men of a Certain Age, premiered on TNT last night. And it appears that this show might already be one of the smarter programs on television. The first show mixed real-life struggles with a light touch of humor and irony throughout. Nice to see a television series with some appeal to people who are over 40. Also good to have something on commercial TV that doesn't contributed to the constant dumbing down of America via the boob tube. Even the musical soundtrack to the show was solid. My only complaint is in having to wade through all the advertisements. Wish Men of a Certain Age was on commercial-free HBO, although it's nice not to have to pay extra to see quality entertainment. We'll see if the show holds up throughout an entire season. So far, so good.

Jeep fails to fess up to a major problem

It's no wonder American automakers are in trouble. Between the unreliability of their products and poor customer satisfaction rates, it's hard to get behind U.S.-made vehicles. You would think this would have improved by now.

For the second time, my 2006 Jeep Liberty had a regulator break on a window. The first time it happened, I thought it was just one of those things. The vehicle was still under warranty, so it was no big deal.

Then it happened again yesterday, this time to a different window. The person at the dealership said it was common but there was no recall on the Jeeps. This time, with my warranty expired, I had to pay for Jeep/Chrysler's idiotic engineering of a part that simply doesn't last very long and also causes windows to break (an additional expense for the glass).

So today I filed complaints with Jeep/Chrysler and also filled out a form with a government agency responsible for tracking recalls. Jeep/Chrysler, in their words, has 24 hours to respond to my request for reimbursement. If they don't respond or don't pay for the repair, then I have to take this further. It was also disheartening to be told by the person in charge of complaints that he knew nothing about the problem with Liberty window regulators. The dealership, where it was repaired, sure knew about the problem.

If you simply Google "Jeep complaints" the first thing you will see is a site with complaints about this very problem. So it's not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, it appears to be the most-reported problem of any Jeep model in the last decade. Yet, the guy on the phone at Jeep said he was unaware of it?

When something similar happened to my wife's Jetta several years ago, Volkswagen made good and paid for the full repair. While there was no official recall despite the Jetta models having window problems, the German-automaker seemed more willing to satisfy the customer. That's good business. Of course, if you buy dependable models from Honda, you likely won't have any problems in the first place. My wife now drives a CR-V. Not a single issue in nearly four years.

What's scary about Jeep is that the new part that was replaced is of the same design and could break again tomorrow. There's no way of telling when the windows will break or whether glass will shatter. There are even reports, according to the dealership, where the regulators break so violently that they rip apart the door locking system. I have three other windows that could go at any time, including the other one that was previously repaired.

Jeep/Chrysler, which recently merged with Italian manufacturer, Fiat, should do a better job at taking care of an obvious flaw in design that has cost thousands of Liberty owners a ton of money. Whether this is a safety issue or not is irrelevant in my mind. Jeep/Chrysler is making thousands off of repairs of a part designed to fail.

UPDATE: Jeep has agreed to pay for the cost of the repair, minus $100 for what they said was a "deductible." Not exactly sure what that means since this is not an insurance issue, but I will now wait to see if they actually cut me a check. I did not, however, get any indication from Jeep that this defect will be fixed once and for all, either through a recall, or a voluntary redesign/replacement of all four window mechanisms.

You can't budget for busted windows

When one hasn't worked in a year, an unexpected $700 car-repair bill is reason enough for quite a bit of anxiety. I hadn't had to worry about affording to fix a broken window, decayed tooth or leaky roof in a long time because for 29 years I worked. I didn't always make a lot of money, but I made enough to get by. Today's car mishap reminded me of how a big chunk of cash taken here or there over time can eventually lead to homelessness, which at my age is almost surreal to think about, yet a very real possibility as the months fly by and the savings account dwindles. While we've cut back on many things due to my being cast out of the newspaper business with thousands of others at the worst possible time, life still happens. Things break. However, if I do end up living in my car, at least the window regulator and battery will work.

Odds and ends from Sunday's games

The most discouraging moment from Sunday's games: Atlanta fans cheering Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick late in the game. A convicted felon who tortured and killed dogs for entertainment, the former Atlanta player should never have been allowed back into the league. His return to Atlanta as a member of the opposing team should have produced a cascade of sustained boos for three hours. Fans boo former players who defect to other teams all the time for far less serious reasons. Yet, in Atlanta, Vick continues to have substantial support, which makes me wonder about that city.

The Washington Redskins had three of the most heartbreaking mistakes possible in their 33-30 overtime loss to undefeated New Orleans. Take away any of the mistakes and the Redskins would have pulled off the upset of the year. They missed a late field goal that was essentially the same distance of an extra point. And extra points have well above a 90% success rate in the NFL. Earlier, they intercepted a pass, and while returning it, the Redskin player wasn't paying attention to how he carried the ball and a receiver from the Saints took it out of his hands and ran the other way for a touchdown. The Washington secondary has done some bonehead things this year, like lateraling after a pick or leaving receivers wide open for touchdowns, but this took the prize for carelessness. Then, the Saints punter shanked a punt for just 20 yards, which would have given Washington great field position. Instead, the ball hit a Redskins player on the back and New Orleans recovered.

What's up with the Pittsburgh Steelers? Losing to Oakland? The defending champs are now in jeopardy of not making the playoffs.

With that all said, any week that includes a Dallas Cowboys loss is a good week. Even better on Sunday because the loss came against the New York Giants, who remain in playoff contention.