The BBC needs a copy editor for the same reason so many other TV news organizations do, we’ve found: To catch misspellings on its on-screen graphics.
Perhaps I’m being hasty here. Perhaps this is one of those odd British spellings.
Or perhaps not. We see so many of these graphic eff-ups that, sure enough, I wonder what kind of quality-control process the TV news business has for these things.
Not much of one, I’d bet.
Thanks to illustrator Ninian Carter of Bradford, England — former assistant graphics editor of the Toronto Globe & Mail – for the tip.
—
You know who else needs a copy editor?
Local TV news operations. Chicago’s WMAQ-TV in particular. And Harrisburg’s Fox43 TV news. And Local 15 News in Mobile, Ala. And other local TV news operations. And CNN and CNN Money and Fox News (and Fox News again) and German news channel N24. And Martha Stewart’s TV operation. And the Disney Channel. And creators of mobile apps. And Google News’ ‘bots. And Baseball jersey manufacturers. 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 the U.S. Postal Service. And government agencies and political candidates. And Tea Party candidates. And city and county Boards of Elections. Both the state of Pennsylvania and its department of transportation. And road paving contractors. And the city of Norfolk, Va. And the Ohio Dept. of Transportation. And South African traffic cops. And billboard companies. And sign painters. And Home Depot and manufacturers of “hoodies.†And T-shirt designers. And more T-shirt designers. And Old Navy. And rubber stamp designers. And glass etchers. And Starbucks. And restaurants, breakfast joints, Chinese restaurants and cake decorators. And more 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 (Hey! A repeat offender!), the New York Times (Hey! Another repeat offender!), the New York Post, Wall Street Journal Europe, Newsday, the Chicago Sun-Times (Yet another repeat offender!), the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle, the Seattle Times, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Missoula, Mont., Missoulian, the Times-Record of Denton, Md., the Amarillo (Texas) Globe News, the Waynesboro News Virginian, the Virginian-Pilot, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinoisian and the Canarsie Courier of New York City. And the Associated Press. And Mann’s Jeweler’s Accent magazine. And Investment News magazine. And Time magazine.
