They got paid to write this?

Rather than risk copyright infringement charges, I’ve excerpted the pertinent line from a news article on a local news channel’s Web site. This happened Saturday night. The driver was LifeFlighted to OHSU.

MAX train collides with car in Hillsboro

The MAX train was not seriously damaged, but the car was smashed up.

How ’bout that last line? Somebody actually got paid to write that. I thought at first that maybe it was just lifted from the police report, that no reporters had been on scene. But no, they actually had video. Maybe they have junior high kids interning on weekends? I’m not linking to the article because you have to sign up (including e-mail) at KGW’s site to read it which I think is just obnoxious. Seriously, can you imagine if CNN did that?

Anyway, it just seemed to me that an accident which involves LifeFlight warrants more descriptive prose than ‘smashed up’.

Now their Weather Alert is reporting that some buses are on “school routes” this morning. Ummm… ok. Perhaps that was supposed to say “snow routes”?

Am I expecting too much?

Sidenote: The accident occurred three, count ’em, 3 blocks from a hospital. But they LifeFlighted the driver to another hospital. Doesn’t say much for the nearby facility.

Here’s a slideshow of the “smashed up” car from the local Fox affiliate.