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A frank acknowledgement up front seems the way to go here:
It's not as though we never cross from in-bounds posting to technical fouls in language choices. Occasional missteps make us more sensitive to the importance of tone, context and respect. Chain yanks from readers, friends and family raise awareness of how "humor" can fall flat or backfire.
That perspective shapes our what-are-they-thinking reaction to a pair of Ann Atrbor News social media posts this afternoon, linking to a news brief by Darcie Moran. Her 65-word item reports in a straightforward way about a two-car accident that left one vehicle on its roof at North Main Street downtown.
"Minor injuries were believed to be involved," the police beat reporter writes.
At the paper's social media desk, the absence of anyone in a life-threatened condition is taken as a green light to be glib about a potentially serious rollover that's hardly a fender-bender or knee-slapper.
Moran's link is tweeted with a vivid photo by News sportswriter Kyle Meinke and just one word: "Oops."
Yes, "oops," as in my bad or hate when that happens. Hardee-har-ambulance ride.
On Facebook, the URL and photo are posted with a bad news-good news framing that starts: "Bad news: This driver is having a rough day."
Call us old-fashioned, but "rough day" fits a flat tire, Internet outage or misplaced iPad -- not an upside-down ride.
No, this isn't akin to plagiarism, concocted quotes
or altered photos, but the lightheartedness shows sophomoric judgment that'd be called out if it appeared in The Michigan Daily -- which is why we ask the MLive Media Group site's editor, Paula Gardner, for her reaction to the posts' tone.
No response to an early afternoon email was received by 7:30 p..m. Tuesday.
