This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Today, I open one of three departments I run, the Department of Pet Peeves.

I do so to emphasize one example of a “words matter” emphasis for me.

Before opening Pet Peeves, know that the other departments I run are the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering and the Department of “Just Saying.”  All three departments operate under my full and complete authority; no one tells me what to do.

My new pet peeve arises from a story in the Washington Post written by media critic Erik Wemple, normally a very competent writer.

His most recent story appeared under this headline:

“Why did the New York Post disappear an article on sexual assault?”

His story started this way:

“The New York Post is officially busted.  In September 2017, it published an apparent scoop about an alleged sexual assault by a top staffer to then-New York City Public Advocate Letitia James.  Then it disappeared the story without alerting its readers — a major violation of journalism hygiene.”

Say what?

The word disappear is not a verb.  You can make something disappear.  Buy you can’t disappear something.

At one point, I thought what occurred might rest with the headline writer and, those of who have been in the journalism business know that headline writers sometimes get things wrong as they post stories. 

But, this time, it was both the writer and the headline writer.

So, Mr. Wemple and his colleagues at the Post should know better and do better.