Why can't The AP get this agate stuff correct/consistent?

http://www.apstylebook.com/ask_editor.php

Hi Norm. Can't seem to find what the style for Fox television should be. Is it Fox or FOX? Please advise. – from Scranton, Pa. on Sat, Jan 20, 2007

AP style is Fox.

FOX network or Fox network? – from Deerfield Beach, FL on Fri, Oct 20, 2006

It's Fox (not an acronym).

 

One of the persistent things I had to deal with in my five-year stint in public relations was clients who wanted, in copy designed to be run in newspaper special sections, to cap their client names.

JELD-WEN windows, etc.

You see that in press releases all the time.

 

Press releases can do whatever they want. The media is not their mouthpiece, however.

Another good hack-ronym was pointed out to me -- USA Today keeps the entire name capitalized, although I'm sure the TODAY doesn't stand for anything.

 

Did you splain it to them?

 

We did a lot of 'splaining. A lot.

Finally, we worked up an FAQ sheet that helped a lot.

 

When I was an SID, our basketball teams played in an arena named for a major telecommunications company which likes to have its name spelled in all caps. I looked through the previous years' media guides, and it was all caps in every instance I found. I stopped that and started writing it like it should have been, and nobody said a word.

 

Fox was going to call itself FBC, for Fox Broadcasting Company (then and now the legal name), when someone mentioned to Rupert Murdoch that a Fox logo mirroring that of the film company would look sharp. Don't think it was ready by the first night, when Joan Rivers premiered.
Speaking of all caps, what about PGA TOUR? Tim Finchem, what does the O-U-R stand for?

 

I love how in soccer AP uses just cities for some teams and nicknames of full names for others (D.C. United, FC Dallas).

 

Here's my $0.02 whine: Why, in AP's daily baseball top ten for hitting, is the header "Pct." when everyone else in the world since the sport was invented consider it a batting AVERAGE? But, in their weekend baseball stats package, it's "Avg." Yes, a minor search and replace, but one that shouldn't need to be done.

 

I like how the AP wasted about 30 minutes (at least) sending the Boston/Oakland box last night.

 

Baseball boxes are sent via a computer program, not hand-typed in.

 

For the record, NBC, CBS and ABC are not acronyms. They're initials. MADD is an acronym because the initials form a pronounceable word.