If one were to pick a litmus test for the reporting skills of local television news, one could do worse than look at the latest hub-bub over “thalates,” a group of chemicals that is correctly and,  let us note, widely spelled “phthalates.”

Never mind, according to Nashville’s WKRN, “Thalates Can Cause Birth Defects, Cancer.”

Or, on second thought, maybe not – as a few sentences into the piece, we find that

“According to some, the ingredients are killing America’s future as research shows thalates may also cause cancer and birth defects.”

Is this the worst-written news story ever? Though we never find out who “some” is, let it not be said that WKRN doesn’t seek out balance when it comes to the death of America’s future.

“One industry expert said, ‘I think these fears are based strictly on hazard. Are thalates in large doses a hazard to rodents, yes they are.’

This is an important point because,

“According to industry scientists, people and rats are two very different creatures.”

Phew! (or in WKRN speak n’spell, “few”); looks like Tennessee dodged another Scopes trial.

It’s easy to ridicule WKRN (you can read why neither phthalates nor “thalates” are a source of birth defects or cancer here); but folks, this is a sickly, barely literate foretaste of the future of journalism – one in which news organizations copy and garble already-mangled news reported earlier on another ABC local affiliate in a different part of the country.

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