Down with brevity!

When I was doing news on local radio stations, I always hated the time constraints. It you were reporting local news, you couldn't really give details on any story. No time. If you were reading news wire reporting, you shuffled through stacks of stories, selecting only those very few you would have time to use. I envied newspaper reporters who could sometimes use several columns to tell their story.

Apparently, few people share my interest in details, as brevity is urged at every turn. In blogging, or even in writing a comment letter to a television news program, you are constantly reminded to be brief. But it has gone beyond that. Using full words is discouraged. If something is real funny, we LOL. If something is shocking, we write (or text) OMG! On Facebook, the comment is often only "Like." Huh? Is it Tweets that should be limited to 140 characters?

When I was in the Army, some soldiers were drafted in the Selective Service System. Others, like me, enlisted. Enlistees were said to be members of the Regular Army, abbreviated RA. Hence, my serial number began RA171..., and we remained soldiers until the end of our term of enlistment. Soldiers who were drafted were on a status of something like "the duration of the conflict.

The other day I saw a TV commercial for some medication for RA. Thinking only of the old Regular Army, I asked my wife if she knew what the medicine was for. "Rheumatoid arthritis", she translated. Is it bad to say rheumatoid arthritis on television?

During the Iraq War reporters often talked about the 4th ID. What? The fourth identification?? No, they were talking about the Fourth Infantry Division. Americans serving in the proud Ivy Leaf Division made a significant contribution to winning World War II, and most every other American military conflict. Are they not entitled to more than "4th ID"?

In my radio days we adhered to the old code of "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em; tell 'em; then tell 'em what you told 'em". In other words, make sure your listeners knew what you said. Today, it's more like "Mumble mumble mumble and three persons were killed. Kansas State Police are investigating. Meanwhile, in Europe..." and you are saying, "What happened? Where in Kansas? Who was killed?" Forget it. You will not know until you hear it or read it from another source. Please, my friend, tell me what you told me!

Obviously the United States Congress also hates brevity. We now have laws that are thousands of pages long. Thousands of pages! Just to describe one law! William L. Shirer's "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich", a complete history of Nazi Germany, is only 1140 pages and I thought it was a long book!