It’s no big secret, I suppose, that online copy doesn’t get quite the same scrutiny that news in print receives. Even display copy. And even from a big outfit like the New York Times.
That’s the only way you can explain something like this:
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“Moron“? Um. The word the Times was looking for was “Mormon.”
That was a story on the New York Times‘ web site not long before midnight Friday night. I’m sure it got fixed quickly enough. But that’s the danger with web pages. It’s awfully easy for someone to screencap your typo and cause it to live forever in infamy.
I heard about this via the Twitter feed of Peter Sagal. Yes, the Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me radio show host.
So anyway, this is why even the New York Times needs copy editors. Especially for online stories.
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You know who else needs copy editors?
Local TV news operations. Chicago’s WMAQ-TV in particular. And Harrisburg’s Fox43 TV news. And other local TV news operations. And Martha Stewart’s TV operation. And Baseball jersey manufacturers. And T-shirt designers. And Georgetown University. And Kansas State University. And the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals (boy, do they need a copy editor). And the National Hockey League. And Fox Sports. And college athletic department ticket offices. And the Virginia general assembly. And college alumni magazines. And pharmacies. And the makers of Sudafed. And Borders bookstore. And government agencies and political candidates. And Tea Party candidates. And city and county Boards of Elections. And the state of Pennsylvania. And the U.S. Postal Service. And South African traffic cops. And road paving contractors. And the Ohio Dept. of Transportation. And billboard companies. And sign painters. And Home Depot and manufacturers of “hoodies.†And rubber stamp designers. And restaurants, breakfast joints, Chinese restaurants and cake decorators. And drive-in movie theater managers. And South Africa’s New Age and Sunday Independent newspapers. And Dublin’s Sunday Business Post. And newspapers in the U.K. And the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Post, Newsday, the Chicago Sun-Times (Hey! A repeat offender!), the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle, the Missoula, Mont., Missoulian, the Amarillo (Texas) Globe News, the Waynesboro News Virginian, the Virginian-Pilot, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinoisian, and Time magazine. And Mann’s Jeweler’s Accent magazine. And CNN and CNN Money and Fox News (and Fox News again) and German news channel N24. And Google News’ ‘bots.
