Between the passing of Neil Armstrong and Hurricane Isaac lashing the Gulf Coast and the start of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, it seems like everybody has needed extra copy editing help this week…
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Let’s start out with the Associated Press. When Mitt Romney joined his wife, Ann, on stage last night in Tampa, someone brainfarted on the word “stage.”
Or hey, perhaps this was an “autocorrect” error.
Thanks to my good friend James Michalowski for the screencap.
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Grad student Megan Baker of Boston’s Emerson College notes via Twitter today:
The one place Metro spelled Ann Romney’s name and it’s in the headline.
#fail
Thanks to my pal Bill Kuchman of Politico for retweeting that one for me.
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Also from the GOP convention…
I hesitate to post this — because a) it’s technically not an error, and b) I’m not sure from whom it came. I did throw it up on my Facebook wall last night, however, where folks seemed to enjoy it.
Whoever was in charge of designing the backdrops in Tampa this week didn’t really think this one through.
The best wiseass reply came from John Russell of the Indianapolis Star:
I don’t know. Look at that innocent baby face.
Heh…
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Back on Sunday, the Weather Channel goofed up while interviewing Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who was preparing for the approach of (then) tropical storm Isaac.
The issue is with the caption — they call it a “super” in the TV biz — beneath the picture. “Governor” is misspelled.
I completely lost track of whoever it was that sent me this. My apologies.
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And, in case you missed it Sunday, there were very few goofs and blunders on the nation’s front pages in reporting the death of Neil Armstrong. The worst mistake I saw, however, was this skybox promo atop the El Paso (Texas) Times.
The problem? That’s not Neil Armstrong. That’s Michael Collins. He was the guy who stayed in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the lunar lander and descended to the surface of the moon.
Needless to say, Collins did not die this weekend.
For the record, here was the entire front page.
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You know who else needs a copy editor?
Local TV news operations. Chicago’s WMAQ-TV in particular. And WLS-TV, also of Chicago. And Harrisburg’s Fox43 TV news. And WDAY-TV 6 News in Fargo, N.D. And Local 15 News in Mobile, Ala. And WMAR-TV in Baltimore. And WBAL-TV in Baltimore. And Fox2Now in St. Louis. And KTLA channel 5 in Los Angeles. And KNBC channel 4 in Los Angeles. And Charlotte’s WBTV. And KXAN-TV of Austin. And Huntsville’s WAFF-TV. And Miami’s WSVN channel 7. And KUSA 9 News in Denver, Colo. And KCRG of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And local Fox affiliates. And other local TV news operations. And CBS local media. And CBS/DC in Washington. And the web operation for DC101 radio. And the Huffington Post. And the Huffington Post again. And CNN (and CNN again)(and yet again)(and yet again)(and a huge one here) and CNN Money and CNN mobile and Fox News (and Fox News again)(and Fox News yet again)(and again!)(and again!)(and yet again!)(and yet again)(and yet again) and Fox Business and MSNBC and MSNBC again and ABC News and NBC news and NBC News again and the Weather Channel and the BBC and German news channel N24. And Fairfax media of New Zealand. And Dagsrevyen, the evening news broadcast of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. And Martha Stewart’s TV operation. And the Disney Channel. And AOL. And creators of mobile apps. And Yahoo News. And Yahoo News again. And the fictional TMI! web site on the Newsroom TV show. And Google News’ bots. And baseball jersey manufacturers. And football jersey manufacturers. And sports ticket counterfeiters. And the NCAA. And the Big 12 Conference. And Georgetown University. And Kansas State University. And the University of Iowa. And the University of North Carolina. And the University of Texas. And Nebraska Wesleyan University. And high school diploma printers. And the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings, the Minnesota Twins the St. Louis Cardinals, the Seattle Mariners and the Washington Nationals (boy, do they need a copy editor). And Manchester United. And the National Hockey League (and the NHL again). And the NHL Network. And ESPN (and ESPN again)(and yet again)(and yet again)(and three more times!)(and yet again)(and yet again) and Fox Sports (and Fox Sports again)(and Fox Sports one more time)(and Fox Sports yet again). And NBC Sports. And NBC Sports again. And CBS Sportsline. And Sports Illustrated (and again). And college athletic department ticket offices. And the NCAA. And Leaf trading card company. 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 the Newt Gingrich campaign. And the Mitt Romney campaign. And the Mitt Romney campaign again. And the White House. And the Vice President. And the President himself. And city and county Boards of Elections. Both the state of Pennsylvania and its department of transportation. And Costa Cruises. And Pittsburgh skywriters. And road paving contractors in Durham, N.C. and in New York City. And the city of Norfolk, Va. And the Ohio Dept. of Transportation. And the Maryland Dept. of Transportation. And the West Palm Beach, Fla., police dept. And Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, Fla. And Sunrise-McMillan Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas. And South African traffic cops. And the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico. And gas stations. And billboard companies. And bumper sticker manufacturers. And sign painters. And Home Depot and manufacturers of “hoodies.“ And T-shirt designers. And more T-shirt designers. And Old Navy. And Adidas. And Mazda. And rubber stamp designers. And glass etchers. And hotels. And manufacturers of custom-printed hotel accessories. And Starbucks. And Wendy’s. And Applebee‘s. And DaVanni’s Pizza. And restaurants, breakfast joints, Chinese restaurants and cake decorators. And more cake decorators. And drive-in movie theater managers. And auto dealers. And auto body shops. And romance novelists. And Capcom, the makers of Resident Evil video games. And the Ku Klux Klan. And American Idol. And book cover designers. And editorial cartoonists. And business page editors. And South Africa’s New Ageand Sunday Independent newspapers. And City Press of Johannesburg. And Dublin’s Sunday Business Post. And the Echo of Gloucestershire, England. And the London Daily Mail. And the National Post of Toronto, Canada. And the South China Morning Post. And the Washington Post (Hey! Another repeat offender!), the Post’s Express tab (Hey! Yet another repeat offender!), the Washington Examiner, the New York Times (Wow! Yet another repeat offender!)(Hey! A third offense!)(Hey! A fourth offense!), the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, the New York Post again, Wall Street Journal Europe, Newsday, USA Today, the Chicago Sun-Times (And yet another!), the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle, the Daily Mail of London, the Echo of Liverpool, England, the Seattle Times, the weekly Manila Mail of San Francisco, the Miami Herald (and again!), the Portland Oregonian, the Durham, N.C., Herald-Sun, the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., the Chapel Hill, N.C., News, the Tampa Bay Times, the Missoula, Mont., Missoulian, the Duluth, Minn., News Tribune, the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, the Advocate of Stamford, Conn., the Times-Record of Denton, Md., the News-Herald of Willoughby, Ohio, the Reporter of Lansdale, Pa., the Times-News of Erie, Pa., the Tribune-Review of Pittsburgh, Pa., the Wilmington, Del., News Journal, the Dispatch of Casa Grande, Ariz., the Amarillo (Texas) Globe News, the Laredo Morning Times, the Daily Telegram of Temple, Texas, the Independent of Rayne, La., the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Waynesboro News Virginian, the Virginian-Pilot (and the Virginian-Pilot again), the Des Moines (Iowa) Register, the Coon Rapids (Iowa) Enterprise, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Gannett’s N.Y. Central Media hub, the Greenville (S.C.) News, the Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, the Deseret News of Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Fort Collins Coloradoan, the Denver Post, the Olympian of Olympia, Wash., the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News, the Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinoisian, the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger (Hey! Yet another repeat offender!) and the Canarsie Courier of New York City. And Politico. And the Associated Press. And the Associated Press again. And the Associated Press again. And the Associated Press again. And the Associated Press yet again. And Mann’s Jeweler’s Accent magazine. And New Scientist magazine. And Investment News magazine. And Time magazine (and Time magazine again). And Editor & Publisher.
And, of course, I need a copy editor myself.
I’ve always needed a copy editor. Which is why you’ll see me fight so hard for them.
