So this is news?

Seen on the KCEN website:

Preventing Swine Flu

While there are no confirmed cases of swine flu in Central Texas, doctors say Central Texans aren’t taking any chances.

“You watch on television, you see all those people walking around Mexico City with mask and you hear about all those people dying, we want to be careful, even though it’s very unlikely to actually hit us, we’re being cautious,” says Dr. Tim Martindale of the Providence Family Medicine Clinic.

But what exactly is the swine flu?

“It has some genetic markers that are swine flu and it has some genetic markers that are also bird flu and human flu. I think the term swine flu just came on and it stuck,” explains Kelly Craine of the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District.

Craine says swine flu carries the same symptoms as traditional seasonal flu but it also has more nausea and diarrhea associated with it.

“What it’s mostly contagious through is respiratory droplets. Stuff coming out of your nose or out of your mouth, coughing sneezing, anything that comes out of your nose or mouth that has possible cotangent if it were the flu,” says Dr. Martindale.

Officials say the virus is very responsive to the anti-viral medicines Tamiflu and Relenze, and can be prevented.

“Wash your hands on a regular basis, don’t touch your face, if you cough or sneeze cough into the crook of your arm or your elbow to prevent it from spreading on your hands, if you are sick, stay at home, if your children are sick, have them stay at home,” Craine says.

If you begin to experience any flu like symptoms, officials say you should go to your doctor. They can do a nasal swab to test for the virus and have results back in about 15 minutes.

Reported By: Ashley Goudeau

This really disgusted me. I mean, they pay these people good money to "report" the news. This girl is a real idiot, if you ask me....not so much because she made mistakes, but because she DIDN'T BOTHER TO HAVE ANYONE PROOFREAD HER ARTICLE!!! If you don't know what you're talking about, don't pretend. You'll just make yourself look stupid.

Here's my response that I e-mailed to the station:

To whom it may concern,

Wow. I am speechless after reading an article by one of your so-called reporters about concerns over swine flu. I would expect a grammatically correct article with reliable information from your reporters, however there were three obviously glaring mistakes in this piece--and these were just the obvious....I didn't bother myself with punctuation, etc.

First of all, a doctor was quoted as saying "...anything that comes out of your nose or mouth that has possible cotangent if it were the flu." I don't know about you, but I'm not sure if you can have a cotangent come out of your mouth unless you're discussing properties of right triangles. I suspect that your reporter meant to quote the Dr. as discussing possible "contagion", but who knows.

She also misspelled the drug Relenza as Relenze. Seems that could easily be googled before it was published.

Finally, she states that if you have flu-like symptoms, you should get checked out by your doctor and they will do a nasal swab and tell you in 15 minutes if you have the virus. Which virus? Swine flu? Because, according to the numerous reports I've read/heard, they have to send samples off to the lab in order to confirm swine flu, which can take up to a few days. So maybe your reporter should clarify and proofread her articles before she represents your station. I would think accuracy of reporting would be most important.

Let me know if you need someone to proofread her work. I'd be happy to do it. She clearly needs another set of eyes looking over it.

Sincerely,
A concerned viewer

*let me just say, I don't care AT ALL if regular folks make these mistakes. That's normal. But if you're representing yourself as a professional, then friggin' have someone check your work!!!!!