Anything But

I am on the email list for WBAL Radio's breaking news alert. So I was a little surprised to receive this, uh, breaking news today:

CAL RIPKEN, JR.'S NAME AMONG FIRST-TIME CANDIDATES ON BASEBALL HALL OF FAME BALLOT RELEASED TODAY. LISTEN TO WBAL RADIO FOR CONTINUING DEVELOPMENTS, AND JOIN STEVE DAVIS BEGINNING AT 6 P.M. UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY AT http://wbal.com

Any player who meets the Hall of Fame's requirements, 10 years as a player and having been retired for five years, is automatically included on the ballot. So this is anything but breaking news. It would have been breaking news if for some reason Cal's name was not on the ballot.

There needs to be at least some discretion on the use of the term Breaking News, though network news hasn't really understood that for quite some time...