Thursday, September 13, 2007

"First the sentence, and then the evidence!"

So said the Queen of Hearts, in an early version of Alice in Wonderland.

Here's an email I just received, which was sent out on a mailing list that I ended up on some time ago for obscure reasons. The moderator of the list, a journalism professor at a top university, apparently sees nothing amiss. (Perhaps there's indeed nothing amiss, and I'm over-reacting?)


Hi [journalism professor],
I'm XXX doing an internship with [a highly respected broadcaster] London. I am writing to request some help- we were looking for a skilled immigrant who initially worked in Europe and found it difficult and then moved to America where the process of immigration is easier.

We have a programme going out today, and would have to interview him in the next three or four hours. Complete apologies for the ASAP type of thing, but I do hope that [your organization] can help me locate this person!

5 comments:

km said...

Grrr-worthy, but it was requested by an intern :)

Rahul Siddharthan said...

Yes but it was forwarded by someone who is emphatically not an intern...

Krithika Ramalingam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Krithika Ramalingam said...

Just amending the post a bit...
It is like this. Somebody lowers the bar a bit or hikes a skirt a little (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20638479/). Watch the video and you will know why I am appending it here... Well, if you dont get the connection... First came the ankle length skirts and the knee length, then the mini and the mini-mini ``with fashionably frayed hem''. how short is too short? Is Paris Hilton the latest role model?...
There was a time when investigative reporters were given months, then it became weeks, days and now it is hours. One editor told me at 6 p.m. to get a punchy copy ready by 9 p.m.
The threshold has been pushed down and down till the bottom dwellers creep in and then everyone throws up their hands and fret.
The bar lowerers are everywhere. Why pick on poor deadline driven journalists? Is it because you married one :P - a former bar lowerer

Rahul Siddharthan said...

Deadlines, deadlines...