Health & Fitness
Er … Um… Ah … It's In The News … Like …Ya Know?
Well … look … if getting a job on television depended on the ability to speak correctly, without annoying verbal tics, sounds and phrases at the end of sentences, there would be no talking heads on television!
Ya know … is a sign the speaker doesn’t know his subject well enough to say it right out, and needs a second to think what he wants to say. Or, maybe he figures you already know what he is about to say – ya know – and then goes ahead and tells you anyway! It’s hard to say.
Um … clear, to the point, unambiguous facts are hard to find coming out of the mouths of todays’ “news readers,” pundits, and reporters. Or, from the people on the street who reporters tend to interview – because it’s easier and cheaper than having to find informed experts!
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Actual reporters, who do real reporting, are now called “investigative reporters,” which used to be, like, redundant.
Some time ago, my Aunt Alice – she’s in her 90s and doesn’t look well – saw a television crew on Encinitas Boulevard filming a fire that was raging in a multi-billion dollar high-rise, with traffic backed up all the way to 101, with ambulances coming from all directions, police and firemen holding back the crowds – as people jumped to their deaths from windows that were beyond the firefighter’s reach. A reporter asked Aunt Alice for her reaction to the horror.
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“It’s, like, horrible,” she reported. And she was, like, quoted on Fox and CNN that night.
So, um … ah … that fire really didn’t happen. I, like, made it up, ya know, just to make a point. But, the next time you watch a “news” program on television, you’ll understand – as soon as the talking head starts talking.
Also notice, when a TV news broadcaster asks anyone, even an expert, to describe something, nine out of ten times the expert being interviewed will begin the explanation with “Well …” or, “Look …”
Jac Flanders was entertainment news anchor on KTXL-TV40 in Sacramento. The News Director was adamant about eliminating verbal tics and phrases.
