I read a wide variety of things and while reading the
Atlanta Journal Constitution coverage of the Peachtree road race, I noticed that the measurements were all over the place (sometimes just metric, sometimes a mix, sometimes just a conversion (it's a 10km race)). So, I sent them the following:
I found the coverage of the Peachtree Road Race to be excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed both the information and opinion pieces.
The only thing that irked me is the randomness of the measurements used. The race is 10km long (which, as a athlete is important information) and
while some articles referred to it as 10km, others used "10km (6.2 miles)" or just "6.2 miles".
I would love to see the reporting of metric numbers as just metric numbers instead of randomly converting them. Everyone understands metric these days and converting is error prone and often misleading (for example, to be an IAAF race, it has to be listed in km not miles). For athletics, this is particularly important as all the interesting numbers are in metric due to their international nature, but it would be nice to see metric left as is in all your reporting.
And they replied with:
Thanks Mr. Armstrong, you make some good points about reporting metrics. I
think we have historically been all over the map on this.
If you regularly (or even irregularly) read a paper or other news source, don't forget to let them know your preference of metric. The
Associated Press in particular need a lot more people to send them a missive or two.
