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ABC&;s Spelling Error: Journalism&;sDecline

By encinoman

The copy editor and the fact checker are no more.  Also no more, sadly, is proper spelling, attention to detail and just basic accuracy.  Take today&;s ABCNEWS.COM story about the Montecito fires&;please.  That&;s Montecito, ABC&;not &;Monticeto.&;  In October an LA Times writer referred to an interview subject keeping a pair of &;Ford Malibus&; in his front yard. There&;s lots more of this every day. After an outcry from the readers, they fixed the Montecito story, but as one wrote, &;The town is Montecito, not Monticeto. Spelling matters. In a previous posting someone asked whether the line editor was asleep. Nope. Probably didn&;t see that the spelling was incorrect. Watch the crawl on CNN or MSNBC. During the course of a day there are scores of errors. As a nation we&;ve lost the art of paying attention to detail. That&;s why our economy is in trouble. We didn&;t read the fine print when we signed the mortgage papers.&;  

Thousands Flee Tony California Town as Blaze Rages



Thirteen injured and more than 100 homes destroyed in fast-moving fire in Montecito

By MIKE VON FREMD and JONANN BRADY

Nov. 14, 2008

18 comments

Flames that ripped through multimillion-dollar mansions Thursday evening continuing burning this morning in the upscale Southern California community of Monticeto, near Santa Barbara. At least 100 homes have been destroyed.

Tags: copyediting, death-of-newspapers, fact-checking, Montecito, sloppy-journalism

This entry was posted on November 14, 2008 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Journalism, Publishing.

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2 Responses to &;ABC&;s Spelling Error: Journalism&;sDecline&;

Mistakes of the Liberal Media « Monday Morning Media Quarterback Says:

December 11, 2008 at 11:25 pm | Reply

[...] that&;s no excuse for making ridiculous, egregious errors like mispelling &;Montecito&; or inventing a new car, the &;Ford Malibu.&;  But those are innocent mistakes [...]

LA Times: John Lennon Buying in Hancock Park « Monday Morning Media Quarterback Says:

May 26, 2009 at 4:16 pm | Reply

[...] LA Times: John Lennon Buying in HancockPark By encinoman No, it&;s not a descent into the world of the Weekly World News, merely a copyediting error in Hot Property  (below.)  In other words, not deliberate, just incompetent. [...]

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