Monday, June 18, 2007
It wasn't the moose's fault!
Fairfield County is in the southwest corner of Connecticut, close to New York City. On Tuesday, June 5, a moose ventured into Fairfield County and collided with a car, sending its driver to the hospital with serious injuries to her face and head. That's what you read in the news.
The headline should have read, "Organizational Stupidity Injures Driver." But you'd have to have read the fine print of an article on Page A14 of the weekly Greenwich Citizen to get this angle. The article, titled "Death of a Moose in New Canaan Angers Many," seems to have been removed from the paper's Web site! [But see the two letters about the incident, the third and fourth letters down on this page.]
What probably happened: the folks from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, according to the article, were chasing the moose, " . . . hoping to shoot him with tranquilizers," and apparently chased the moose onto the busy Merritt Parkway, where the collision occurred. The "authorities" from the DEP were described as Keystone Kops by one letter writer.
Another local paper's story confirmed that the moose was struck, ". . . after eluding police and DEP officials."
The "authorities" should have had the brains to chase the moose away from major highways. And the newspapers should have led with the incompetence story -- on Page 1, not Page A14! But a search of current news reveals lazy dog-bites-boy headlines, worthy of Page A14.
The headline should have read, "Organizational Stupidity Injures Driver." But you'd have to have read the fine print of an article on Page A14 of the weekly Greenwich Citizen to get this angle. The article, titled "Death of a Moose in New Canaan Angers Many," seems to have been removed from the paper's Web site! [But see the two letters about the incident, the third and fourth letters down on this page.]
What probably happened: the folks from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, according to the article, were chasing the moose, " . . . hoping to shoot him with tranquilizers," and apparently chased the moose onto the busy Merritt Parkway, where the collision occurred. The "authorities" from the DEP were described as Keystone Kops by one letter writer.
Another local paper's story confirmed that the moose was struck, ". . . after eluding police and DEP officials."
The "authorities" should have had the brains to chase the moose away from major highways. And the newspapers should have led with the incompetence story -- on Page 1, not Page A14! But a search of current news reveals lazy dog-bites-boy headlines, worthy of Page A14.
Technorati Tags: Connecticut, Organizational Culture, Press, Stupidity
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