An Open Letter To The News Media

[DonRocks]

Hello,

Please stop making mistakes like this.

Thank you,

Don Rockwell

Editor's note: Alan Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School.

Cambridge, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The jury in the John Edwards case rendered exactly the right verdict. Of course they couldn't make up their mindd on most of the charges.

---

From "Edwards Jury Got It Exactly Right" by Alan M. "She Should Have Known" Dershowitz, CNN.com, May 31, 2012, 6:50 PM EST

[The Hersch]

If that sort of thing were among the worst sins or failings of our news media, we would be blessed indeed.

[mtureck]

What am I missing here? Is there something more than the typo on "mindd", which has since been fixed on the site?

[DonRocks]

What am I missing here? Is there something more than the typo on "mindd", which has since been fixed on the site?

No, but I see these errors almost daily on national news webpages, sometimes front-and-center on the home page. They generally find and fix the typos within an hour or so, but it is unprofessional and damning to have these published in the rush to get the story online.

[jayandstacey]

No, but I see these errors almost daily on national news webpages, sometimes front-and-center on the home page. They generally find and fix the typos within an hour or so, but it is unprofessional and damning to have these published in the rush to get the story online.

Not to justify sloppiness, but...

In the old days, they'd pay proofreaders to catch ALL errors. So a story is written at 5pm. The paper would publish and distribute the story the next morning and errors not captured by the in-house proofers were resigned to clarifications in the next available edition.

Now, a story written at 5pm is likely published with a nominal review by 6pm the same day. The self-appointed public proofreaders are on it quickly and provide near-immediate feedback, which then is quickly corrected. By bedtime, the story is likely fixed.

Today's version is cheaper (less proofreaders to pay) and gets the story in your hands many hours than the old method. You're getting what is admittedly a draft if you catch the story early enough...but for such misspellings, I'd imagine the story isn't significantly impacted.

Given the choice, I'd take sooner and sloppier over later and cleaner.

Having said that, I'd suggest two things:

1. That a reputable newspaper should spend money for the automated tools to detect and prevent such nominal (and comical) errors from public view. We should never see this kind of thing simply because they don't have a spell check as the final pass, or as a bot on a pre-production staging site before going public.

2. That the method of delivery never excuses poor journalism - unchecked facts, plagerism, etc.

net: I agree. No exuse.

[Barbara]

Before the Internet Revolution, while the WaPo still had an army of editors, some wag wrote a Letter to the Editor offering her condolences because she hadn't realized all the Editors had apparently died--given the Sally Quinn article that was published.

[Pat]

The copy editing stuff annoys me when it is simple typos, but the larger problem is that no one is editing for coherence. Some of the articles the Post puts up (and it's not only limited to the Post) are unclear and confusing. An extra letter that is obviously a mistake is much easier to deal with than trying to read a piece that omits important information or is ambiguous about who has done what. Many of the crime articles the Post runs, for instance, are baffling, and not necessarily because the perpetrator hasn't been identified.

[DonRocks]

This headline is currently on the home page of cbsnews.com:

Craigslist Super Bowl scam vicitms gets saved

[RWBooneJr]

There is a catastrophic typo in the review for Cityzen in the Washingtonian's new 100 Best issue.

[porcupine]

^That ain't the only error in there. They need to proofread more closely.

[jayandstacey]

My wife and I had a spirited discussion that went like this:

"How could a 100 best list have 24 incoming and 23 outgoing places?" (page 71)

"Maybe when they first lined up the lists, side-by-side, the fonts were different, making them look the same length"

"Maybe Black's Bar and Kitchen isn't really on the list, but they pushed it in there because they forgot a caption for the picture above"

"Maybe 100 is really just a loose target"

"Maybe one place ate another during the year."

"Maybe honeybadger just doesn't care"

[darkstar965]

This headline is currently on the home page of cbsnews.com:

Craigslist Super Bowl scam vicitms gets saved

Too funny. CBS must have heard you and edited their headline. However, below the headline and photo, this is in the caption now, more than 30 hours later:

NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 29: A Super Bolw flag is seen on Bourbon Street

[Bart]

There is a catastrophic typo in the review for Cityzen in the Washingtonian's new 100 Best issue.

Funny! I just picked it up but haven't really read much yet.

For those playing along at home, the frist couple of sentences talk about how great Chef Eric Ziebold is, but a little further they say, "A recent dish of calf's-liver sashimi illustrates Monis's quest to challange himself and his diners"

The obvious mistake is the chef's name swap from the Komi article, but should there be a hyphen in "calf's-liver"? I don't recall seeing something like that before.

[Michael Landrum]

...but should there be a hyphen in "calf's-liver"? I don't recall seeing something like that before.

When it is a compound adjective modifying a subsequent noun, yes.

So calf's liver, but calf's-liver mousse.

Maybe it's the apostrophe'd possessive which throws you, so think: Bee pollen, versus bee-pollen jelly.

As a great man once said, "The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe."

[Dr. Delicious]

English be crazy complicated, yo!

[MsDiPesto]

When it is a compound adjective modifying a subsequent noun, yes.

So calf's liver, but calf's-liver mousse.

Maybe it's the apostrophe'd possessive which throws you, so think: Bee pollen, versus bee-pollen jelly.

As a great man once said, "The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe."

5 points to Gryffindor for the Zappa quote!

[DonRocks]

Funny! I just picked it up but haven't really read much yet.

For those playing along at home, the frist couple of sentences talk about how great Chef Eric Ziebold is, but a little further they say, "A recent dish of calf's-liver sashimi illustrates Monis's quest to challange himself and his diners"

The obvious mistake is the chef's name swap from the Komi article, but should there be a hyphen in "calf's-liver"? I don't recall seeing something like that before.

Is challenge misspelled, or is that your typo? That would be a bigger error than the hyphen (which is correct).

That said, Ziebold has made a calf's-liver sashimi for years, so I don't think he's challenging himself very much by making it.

[Bart]

That's was my typo, not theirs. Can we get a spell check button!?!?!?!?

[DonRocks]

WashingtonPost.com front page since 1:52 PM:

"Nats’ Gonzalez responds to report he didn’t performance-enhancing drugs"

[u-bet!]

Spot the mistake (no fair looking at the comments).

[DonRocks]

Spot the mistake (no fair looking at the comments).

I remember Mr. Waller (my 8th grade Geography teacher) chiding me for making the opposite mistake in a paper I wrote. I've never forgotten the spelling since then - I can still hear his tone of (somewhat feigned) disgust (PS - if you're out there, Clinton Waller ... thanks!)

[monavano]

I hope they're serving up plenty of drinks with that very dry hoe cake. Is it hoe cake or hoecake? And Bill hasn't eaten chicken in quite some time. It's like saying Bill's favorite is a Big Mac! Memo: heart bypass, weight loss, veggie/vegan diet.

[u-bet!]

& the fact that the story was posted almost two hours ago and it still has not been corrected makes me think it may indeed be the official menu .

[lekkerwijn]

#44 Burger

[DonRocks]

#44 Burger

You know what? Until just this minute (and I had read the piece earlier today), I thought this was named after John Riggins.

[ad.mich]

"you always want seconds on dessert"

best spelling memory trick my mom ever gave me

[DonRocks]

"you always want seconds on dessert"

best spelling memory trick my mom ever gave me

Mister Wilson Is Inside Miss Kathkart's Twat All Morning Long.

(That's how I memorized the states bordering the Mississippi River, north to south, and I *just now* learned that it's spelled Cathcart.)

You've just had a peek inside the mind of a somewhat warped record.

[u-bet!]

Prosecution: Zimmerman Witness May Have Showed Up Too Early

[DonRocks]

Top Headline on ABCNews.com right now:

ANHONY WEINER SCANDAL

[u-bet!]

Prosecution: Zimmerman Witness May Have Showed Up Too Early

Hey, they fixed it!

[DonRocks]

From WashingtonPost.com:

 

"You have read your 20 free articles this month. Get unlimited access now."

Mongomery sheriff's office employee accused of running scam at work

[DonRocks]

This is currently on the front page of Sports Illustrated (si.com) - I expanded the size for emphasis, note the top-left:

[DaveO]

....and the link to the actual story:   (the first page headline is ....ooooh so much more promisting

[u-bet!]

"While a political earthquake has shook Westminster to its core..."

[MC Horoscope]

Jeb Bush has a sad about 2016 election

Trained bald eagle escapes handler, flies out of Dodger Stadium because America

 

 

[DonRocks]

This is unbelievable - the Nats won yesterday and even turned a triple play in doing so.

[DonRocks]

On 5/31/2012 at 6:49 PM, DonRocks said:

Hello,

Please stop making mistakes like this.

Thank you,

Don Rockwell

Editor's note: Alan Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School.

Cambridge, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The jury in the John Edwards case rendered exactly the right verdict. Of course they couldn't make up their mindd on most of the charges.

---

From "Edwards Jury Got It Exactly Right" by Alan M. "She Should Have Known" Dershowitz, CNN.com, May 31, 2012, 6:50 PM EST

For the love of God, this is ABC News - look at the center story:

And then when you click on the front page, it's in the article itself:

This is pathetic.

[DonRocks]

I'm not sure where else to put this, but this is the second time in two days this publication has printed a false headline:

I suppose this depends on your definition of "fail," but the top-left headline is dubious, at best, given that our 9th President, William Henry Harrison, died 31 days into his term (after catching pneumonia during his cold, rainy, inauguration ceremony).