All’s quiet on the news front

When a reporter writes that something had been done “quietly,” it means he or she missed covering the story when it happened. Great illustration of this is in a Boston Globe story on June 11, 2010, about Governor Baker planning a bill to create a statewide certification process for police. The story says: “Baker is expected to release details of the plan as early as next week, building off the recommendations of a working group he quietly created last year to study creating a Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, system, according to those involved in the process.”

So we discover there’s a “working group” that has been working for a whole year on a major development for police departments throughout Massachusetts, and it’s been done “quietly,” evidently without the Globe’s knowledge.

File under: Journalism rule: Never admit you missed a story.