By ALAN BAUER
We all make mistakes, and hopefully Jay Leno will own up to his, although, being a mega-star and soon to be prime-time performer, I doubt we’ll hear from him.
On a recent Tonight Show, during his popular “Headlines” segment, Leno found great humor in two of our Marlton Telegram headlines. Links to the segment are on this site, so you can see for yourself.
Both headlines are from the April 8 edition of the Telegram.
On the front page of the newspaper in question was the headline “School taxes going up.” On page two, there was a headline “School taxes going down.”
Apparently Jay and the NBC folks didn’t bother to read the actual stories, and instead got a great laugh out of what they thought was some kind of hilarious blunder on our part. Actually, the stories and headlines were accurate. We make enough mistakes on our own. We don’t need a comedian’s “help” to create “mistakes” where mistakes do not exist.
As you know, not being a big TV celebrity and actually being able to read, Evesham’s K-8 proposed district school taxes were going up under the proposed budget. School taxes were going down, in Evesham’s case, in the Lenape Regional High School District under that district’s proposed budget.
Two different school districts. Two different tax situations. Is it really that complicated? Not for voters, who rejected the K-8 budget (the one with taxes going up) and approved the Lenape budget (the one with taxes going down).
What makes us really wonder how Leno and his gang messed up so royally is that, on the front page of the paper, we have what we call a “refer box,” right under the big headline, explaining that, yes, taxes are up in one district, down in another and referring to the story on page 2.
And, of course, at the bottom of the front page, there’s a “please see” line directing readers to the continuation of the page 1 story on page 10.
So how did this happen? Did the NBC people have a lapse in judgment like we all have from time to time, or are things so slow they have to twist the facts to suit their needs? Or was Jay still recovering from his recent illness and a bit off his game?
When we make a mistake, we print a correction.
Will Leno correct his mistake on national TV? Or maybe send a note of regret (actually a signed 8×10 glossy would sell better on eBay) to make amends to our reporter, who, by the way, didn’t write the headlines?
We’re not holding our breath.
However, we are looking forward to Conan O’Brien, who takes over the Tonight Show gig in about a month. Now he is a funny guy. We’ll make sure he gets a copy of the Telegram, too.
Alan Bauer is the general manager of Elauwit Media. He can be reached at (856) 427-0933 ext. 118 or abauer@elauwitmedia.com.
Even a first grader could figure out there were two different stories.
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April 30th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
You’d get more mileage out of Jay’s gaffe if you weren’t so whiny about it.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Uhh, you DID look silly.
You should have used the district’s name in the headlines or just rewritten them. Thanks for the laughs, I’d forgotten about you.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Well, the Leno bit is called “Headlines” isn’t it? It’s not necessarily about the content of the stories, its the “Headlines”!
You must admit that they were poor choices to describe the stories.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Uhh, Steve, people should learn to read. Could the headlines have been better? Sure. But that’s no excuse for what Jay Leno did. What he said about the writer, even though the writer didn’t make any mistakes, was wrong. Leno owes the reporter an apology. Thanks for the laughs. Now I’ll forget about you.
K: They were accurate headlines. The newspaper even explained the difference in the stories on the front page. Anyone can pick two unrelated headlines out of any newspaper, put them together and make a stupid joke out of it. Pick one: Leno made a mistake or he intentionally distorted the facts to try for a laugh.
I like Leno. I assume it was just a silly mistake and there’s nothing wrong with the newspaper pointing it out. If Leno said something like this about you or your business, you’d be angry too.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Uh, gee, Alan, a first-grader might have figured out that two stories are referred to in the above layout. But perhaps after only reading the refer to the other story a couple of times and flipping to page 10 for the first story’s jump. But why make readers do that? Wouldn’t it have been easier for readers and clearer if your copy editor and/or slot had added the school district’s name in the refer to the page 2 story? ESPECIALLY since “Evasham” appears in both the deck and the refer? That’s even more reason to make it clear that two districts are involved in the two stories. And why in the world was similar language used in the headline of the first story and in the bold lead-in of the refer to the page 2 story? The similar language only further confused matters.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Hi Patsy,
Thanks for writing. I appreciate your comments. You make good points about the clarity of headlines, and that’s something I’ve reviewed with the staff. Even though, in our smaller towns, readers are quite familiar with their school districts and the like, we need to be as clear as possible.
The school district is referred to in the page 2 refer. LRHSD refers to the Lenape Regional High School District. The page 1 story, as clearly indicated, is about the K-8 district.
We disagree about this, but I thought the “taxes going up” and “taxes going down” references were about as direct as possible and clearly point out the differences between the two budgets that Evesham voters had to consider.
That said, personally, if I were going to go on national television and make fun of someone or something, I’d double-check the facts before opening my mouth. As you know, there’s a big difference between saying something “could have been better,” as you have pointed out, and basically declaring something is “wrong.”
We certainly make our fair share of mistakes, and own up to them when we do. We’re not looking to make a federal case out of this. Just sticking up for ourselves and our reporter, who did nothing wrong.
Thanks.
Alan
April 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Patsy basically took the words right out of my mouth. Your editors didn’t quite do their job. Space may have been tight in the heds/refer box, but sorry, you can’t solve your problems at the expense of your readers.
Leno was not 100% accurate, but he seized on the most visible elements that would have puzzled your average skimming reader as well.
Besides, c’mon, he’s a comedian.
And you’re not.
May 1st, 2009 at 9:49 am
It is a joke you losers. Get over it. And why would the editor choose the headline like that anyway.
No need to be so damn uptight.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:11 am
Well then the problem is with the slow editor who couldn’t come up with two different headlines. They were completely identical save for up/down.
Get a grip and do your job better next time. Leno doesn’t have to do s–t for you.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Now you’re aware that most readers only scan the headlines. How will you improve your presentation? You’re in the information business, and contrary to the past 100 years of newspaper mindset, the customer is always right.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Thanks for the comments, Brian.
But, judging from the vote, our customers had no trouble figuring out which budget was which, as they approved one budget and rejected the other one.
You have a good point about presentation, and it’s something we’ll definitely keep in mind.
Thanks again.
Alan
May 1st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I believe Leno did nothing wrong. He didn’t say a mistake was made or implied one was made. Obviously, if you read the articles you know they are about different districts. The joke is about the headlines and how they are conveying totally opposite ideas yet are in the same newspaper and at that only 1 page apart. Now that is funny even if it is true and correct.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:10 am
I agree with Mike, it’s comedy no harm no foul, get over it
August 19th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Stop crying little girl.
September 24th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Wow. I heard about this response on another website and thought it was a joke. As I can see here you are completely serious. How sad for you. Are you telling me you are so offended that you actually want Jay Leno to go on TV and apologize for one of his jokes? I think you’re little po-dunk town paper could use a reality check. That and a better editor.