News for dummies

The newspaper where I worked for 42 years — before being laid off and replaced by an automated computer program — just redesigned its Web site.

Its home page is now all pictures. A few short captions and what might pass for  headlines, but dominated by photos. There's an index for various sections.

Here's my problem ... photos are utterly open to interpretation and misinterpretation.

Words are for specifics, details, accuracy.

Photos on a news site are for illiterates.

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A Gibbs failure

Much as I enjoy the "NCIS" twins on CBS, I had a major problem Tuesday night with the first part of a prospective spin-off, set in New Orleans.

The lawmen committed several crimes during the course of the story, including Scott Bakula's character, King, who threw an obnoxious jerk across the hood of a car. Somebody else slammed a suspect's head into a table. Maybe that was King, too.

Now, could be, lawmen have different rules in Louisiana than in the rest of the United States, being as it's the South and all, but these acts of violence are firing offenses, and maybe even jailing offenses. Maybe the suspects had it coming, but our police cannot start behaving like they work for Mr. Putin's secret police. For some, that behavior started long ago, in reality and in fiction.

Come on, "NCIS," you're better than that.

Plus, the witty dialogue's starting to feel like the worst of the James Bond movies. It's especially strained in "NCIS: Los Angeles."

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