Over and Out

“Over and out:” someone coined this alleged radio communication phrase back in the early days of moviemaking and it’s been with us ever since. It’s not what people say over the radio, though. It’s one or the other—over or out—putting the two together doesn’t make sense. “Over” means you’re done speaking and you’re inviting the other person to talk. “Out” means you’re all done talking and you’re terminating the conversation.

Radio communication buffs cringe when they hear this phrase and I’m sure they’ve let Hollywood know that it’s a mistake but that hasn’t stopped the movie industry from keeping on keeping on. Once something like this gets going it develops a life of its own.

The same effect applies to journalism. Reporters often get their information from one another’s stories and if those stories have mistakes, those mistakes are spread farther. The seconding reporters might initially attribute the information to the source—another newspaper—by writing: “according to …” But subsequent stories might just report it as fact. Then the error takes on a life of its own and never completely goes away.

So—over and out.