Channel 5 captions leave room for improvement

During the coverage of this year’s Fair St. Louis, there was little mention from local TV stations about how many people attended.  Fair officials later estimated some 250,000 people came to the two and one-half day event.  But there was perhaps a shot at the lower attendance at the parade fired by Channel 5.  A graphic noted “dozens turn out for 132nd VP parade.”  Clearly, more than dozens turned out.  So what happened?  Channel 5 spokesman Jeff Winget said in an e-mail, “This was simply a mistake on our part.”  Perhaps someone was being funny or sarcastic when the person wrote the caption.  The problem was, it ended up on the air quite by accident.  It is said you should never cuss around microphones because you never know if it will get on the air.  Perhaps the same needs to be said when you write captions.  You never know when it might be shown.