An open memo to my journalism colleagues

I believe, and this is a paraphrase of someone else’s quotation, that there are three things that make a newspaper worthwhile: Accuracy, accuracy, and accuracy.

My inner copy editor can take no more. There are lots of common misconceptions among journalists, whether one’s medium is print, radio, TV or the Web. Most people do not know the difference between usages but, for those who do, news media could be constantly damaging their own reputations.

Please refrain from using the word “gridlock” as a term to describe garden variety vehicular congestion or traffic, during rush hour or otherwise. Gridlock describes a specific type of congestion where competing elements are preventing everyone’s progress, and was first used to describe a situation where vehicles blocking intersections “locked” a grid of streets by preventing throughput. Since most vehicular congestion is caused by elements including collisions, slow drivers and bottlenecks, the area surrounding Times Square can experience gridlock; CA-880 cannot.

I invite all your questions and suggestions for other common usage mistakes.

The Yellow Menace has already sent a letter to the editor at theyellowmenace1@gmail.com