[...] Next up: another mythical language popularized by The "Lord of the Rings" films.

"The kids," Jelusich says, "are learning to speak Elvish." So, while the county may be looking for a Klingon translator, it's not so that they can keep them on staff, but just so that they can contact them in the event they're ever needed.

Either way, it's a funny story, but the way the AP article reads, the situation sounds ridiculous, when it actually isn't that out of line. I mean, think about it - if you have a mental health patient that only speaks in Klingon, and refuses to recognize any other language (and, while probably rather rare, it's not outside the realm of possiblity, especially for a delusional patient), how are you going to reach them or help them at all if you can't communicate with them in any way?

It's certainly not unheard of for news organizations to "punch up" a story a bit to make it sound more interesting, but in this day when we are having more news outlets (newspapers, networks, radio stations, etc.) owned by a small number of companies, and many rely on news wire services for a large portion of their stories, it becomes more likely that a potentially biased, slanted or "punched up" version of a story may end up being the only version out there.

This is one of the benefits of a more diversified media. More unrelated news outlets means that more versions of a story can be put into play, each focusing on the details their particular author or editor feel is most pertinent. The result is more information available through the media marketplace, and a clearer picture emerges of what a situation really is.

Sadly, with the direction the FCC is heading, allowing individuals or corperations to own a large number of news outlets, the problems due to too few sources are only going to be magnified. The cost is that the populace become less informed and more vulnerable to biases in reporting and editing that often conform to what the big businessmen in charge want - and, as we've seen in the last few years, that tends to be a very conservative vision of the world.