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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

"undetermined"

The fourth most worthless word in television is the word "undetermined" in connection with a bank robbery or other theft. One, it's not conversational. When was the last time you turned to someone and said, "The robber got away with an undetermined amount of cash"?

Two, it's not factual--or at least, it's not always factual--and it leaves the viewer with a false assumption that the amount of money missing will be determined later. Guess what, folks. Often they know exactly how much money the bandit got away with, for the simple reason that he probably has a "bait bag" with a dye bomb inside it and a well-known amount of bait cash. If they don't know, they'll find out very quickly. But believe this: They might never tell you how much cash the bandit got. There's a good reason for this: Revealing the amount of cash the bandit took is the worst form of advertising for the bank. The bandit might have escaped with a nice wad of cash. If the bank reveals the amount, it's essentially throwing out a challenge for other robbers to try to match or surpass the previous robber's haul.

Forrest Carr
Deadly Copy Sins and How to Avoid Them
Broadcast News Handbook, Third Edition

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