Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A Washington Post "mess"

Thanks to a frequent reader for this column about a recent Washington Post column that was the victim of tighter deadlines and likely less editing.
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5 comments:

Jan Scholl said...

I see the same thing in other papers. USA Today used to have the scores for Tigers and Pistons for a7 PM game start. Not anymore. I have to get the stats online now. I won't even go into the typos (spelling and geography are two of the biggest mess ups) in local papers because that is a very easy target these days. I sometimes forget to use spell check but I am not getting paid to write.

05 November, 2009 00:52
inky said...

While you'd hope that an otherwise world-class paper would hire people who produce copy with zero errors, it's still a product created by human beings. For a column filed after midnight and due out at 12:30, there's not much time for a thorough editing.

I'd like to tell the guy who "wants his 75 cents back" that he isn't paying even the tiniest fraction of the cost of putting out a newspaper. You want perfection -- pay $4 or $5 an issue. Otherwise, either stay up late and watch the game, shut up or publish your own newspaper.

05 November, 2009 10:42
former newsie said...

When the daily I worked at the in early 1980s finally switched from typewriters to computers, the publisher said computers would allow for later deadlines because all the editing and back shop functions would go faster. Exactly the opposite has happened.

06 November, 2009 07:54
Anonymous said...

coppy editers are overweighted.

just ask any publisher who has never had to write a story on a midnight deadline.

07 November, 2009 17:02
Dave Forsmark said...

Today, the New York Times,because of obvious eagerness to make a political point, wrongly identified Navy SEAL Medal of Honor recipient Michael Monsoor as a Muslim. (No profiling here, folks, move along nothing to see) Monsoor's official Navy bio clearly states that he was a Catholic.

09 November, 2009 13:56

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