Enough With The Fancy Writing

John Edward Ames goes on a rant, arguing:

Accuracy, brevity, and clarity used to be the bywords of a newspaper reporter. Now it's suspense, setting, and back story.

And later:

Over the decades, I've watched journalists expropriate the traditional conventions of the novelist and screenwriter, and my main question is why? The cross between jackal and wolf at least produced the domestic dog; the cross between news and fiction has produced only paperback journalism with its "gas-blue skies" and "pink and gold sunsets."

He blames Tom Wolfe for blowing up the inverted pyramid and encouraging literary flourishes with his Junior Johnson profile. He is disturbed by all the blending of fact and fiction. Not sure what paper he's reading.

I think he makes a few good points (Don't use gimmicks, don't jack with readers time, don't go for style when you haven't done the reporting), but his aim is off. I think he's talking about bad narrative, and on that I'm in agreement. Bad narrative is worse than bad inverted pyramid. And bad narrative is bad for all of us.