Althouse: Their getting really bad at editing at The Washington Post.

June 22, 2015

Their getting really bad at editing at The Washington Post.

Seen on my iPhone at 5:25 a.m.:

19 comments:

JT said...: USA Today has the same problem. I see spelling and grammar errors all the time. Most newspapers are much more poorly edited than they used to be because of the drastic reduction in staffing levels over the last decade. Copy desks, news graphics departments and design teams have been particularly hard hit, and those layoffs in particular have produced a marked drop off in quality.

I never understood how making the product worse was going to save the industry, but that seems to be the theory to which newspaper executives have subscribed (no pun intended).; 6/22/15, 7:43 AM
Hagar said...: Old editors retire or die.
New editors never learned English.; 6/22/15, 7:53 AM
Sdv1949 said...: I see what you did their.; 6/22/15, 8:10 AM
Michael K said...: Part of the problem may be the stupidity of Microsoft Word and its grammar checker.; 6/22/15, 8:13 AM
Darrell said...: "They're" not "Their."

Very funny, Ann.; 6/22/15, 8:16 AM
Bryan C said...: My Mom worked as a technical editor for years. She used to call the local newspaper and point out the most glaring errors. Eventually the errors became so common she just gave up. And, like most people, she also gave up reading the local paper.; 6/22/15, 8:37 AM
Scott said...: Two thoughts:

1. I work in I.T., where nobody expects coders to produce bug-free code the first time. They test and validate to make sure it works right when it goes online. But if the technical writer has bugs in early drafts of their documentation -- using the incorrect word, typos, etc. -- they are considered idiots.

2. Producing a news stream has a different dynamic from publishing a newspaper. Papers appear at specific times during the day, and a lot of resources are focused on those singular events. For major daily papers, different layers of editors scrutinize the publication before it goes to press; and the result is (usually) a nearly error-free product. But you can't use that model for streaming news -- the economics don't work. And not even the Washington Post, which is the finest newspaper in America, can achieve the same level of perfection in their streaming news that they do in print.; 6/22/15, 8:48 AM
Big Mike said...: You think the editing is bad at the Washington Post? You should try reading the content. Sometimes a story will be about something I'm familiar with, and as I read the article I have to wonder whether the reporter whose byline is at the top just made it up to save a trip out of downtown DC instead of driving out to the (shudder!) suburbs and talking to people.; 6/22/15, 8:54 AM
amielalune said...: Scott:

Two thoughts:

1. Coding differs quite a bit -- more difficult to learn, less forgiving of errors, etc. from the English language, at which a "journalist" should have a minimum of competence.

2. I was puzzled by your pompous and condescending tone as you assumed that we don't know the difference between a newspaper and streaming news, until I read your assertion that the WaPo is "the finest newspaper in America." Now I understand. Wow.; 6/22/15, 9:17 AM
JAORE said...: But, but, but I was told that a key difference between real journalists and bloggers (in the basement wearing jammies) is the layers of fact checkers and editors.; 6/22/15, 9:29 AM
gerry said...: Sometimes a story will be about something I'm familiar with, and as I read the article I have to wonder whether the reporter whose byline is at the top just made it up to save a trip out of downtown DC instead of driving out to the (shudder!) suburbs and talking to people.

Think about all the stuff about which you know nothing. The MSM want you to believe their words about that stuff, too. In the old days, the MSM could get away with it. Today, it is not so easy.

It is no wonder MSM is dying: their crap can be fact-checked by armies of citizens, each expert in one or two fields, and the errors may be exposed quickly, myths exploded, and agendas destroyed.; 6/22/15, 10:12 AM
paminwi said...: You know who hates to be proofread and corrected? Schoolteachers! Every time a newsletter came home from school with errors, I would circle and correct misspellings, punctuation, etc. I am not perfect, by any means, but misspelling words really get to me.

Please feel free to correct any errors seen.; 6/22/15, 10:21 AM
JAORE said...: Amen Paminwi.

And math, for God's sake, math. My son did a homework problem many years ago. I still recall it exactly:

5 x 0 + 7 = ?

He put down 0. I explained orders of operation and that the answer was 7. He told me he had a similar problem in class and the teacher said ANYTHING with a "x 0" anywhere in the formula must = 0. He came home with a 100% on his paper.

I spoke with the teacher. He assured me he was right and I just didn't know math. I left without playing the Licensed Professional Engineer card. And I payed a LOT more attention to my son's math homework. Luckily HE believed me and is skilled in math.; 6/22/15, 11:07 AM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: It's editing for TV newsreader teleprompters - casual spoken English.

In the (Harlingen, TX) Valley Morning Star there is an overflow of apostrophes. Everything is possessive:
..the Court's documents;
..the Committee's spokesperson.

Some things are doubly possessive:
..a friend of Margret's.

Contractions are rampant:
..they'll;
..they've;
..he'd -
not just in quoting a speaker, but in the story itself.

Everywhere the new word "gonna" has replaced "will." Inappropriate homophones abound.

Sad to see.; 6/22/15, 11:10 AM
Scott said...: "I was puzzled by your pompous and condescending tone..."

...she said, pompously and with condecension. :-); 6/22/15, 11:24 AM
Scott said...: Like, wow.; 6/22/15, 11:25 AM
amielalune said...: Scott: My blessing for you is: May you someday become half as clever as you think you are. (And improve your spelling, too.) Poor thing.; 6/22/15, 12:44 PM
Scott said...: Being even a tenth as clever as I think I am sure beats not being clever at all. Here's a clue: Being snotty isn't being clever. If it were, you would be the Most Clever Girl in the World -- a gigantic sticky green ball of clever. (Poor thing. Girls like you make me feel so blessed to be gay.); 6/22/15, 2:12 PM
Qwerty Smith said...: The headline could be correct: it's a story about (1) their turning 18, and (2) their getting attention. "Their" is needed in the second part so we know that the getting of attention is possessed by those Latinos. Or, perhaps the error is in the first clause. It should be, "800,000 Latinos turning 18 each year, and their getting candidates' attention."; 6/23/15, 9:13 AM