Editing Detective, Aden Cruz

Accuracy is central to good journalism. Though mistakes are inevitable especially in online media because content producers compete by the minute to have their breaking news up first, it’s still important that publications check their copy for any errors to prevent damage to their reputation and to uphold appropriate journalistic standards. Though journalists are placed in the difficult predicament of producing content more quickly than ever, it's still possible to screen for errors with the help of copy editors.

It seems, double checking for typos is now most frequently dismissed due to time constraints and pressures to be “first” to break/post the news online. The screen capture below is of a New York Times blog entry with a typo on the third paragraph as it quotes, “A small price to pay for helping too break the back of our oil dependency”. The word “too” should be “to”, this typo could have been easily prevented if the copy was double (or triple) checked for errors. But of course, time is of essence in posting online news.

Another error I found was when the newspaper Valley News printed its own name incorrectly. A UK newspaper, Telegraph, wrote about it in their article "Newspaper misspells its own name on front page".

Claire Theobald made an excellent comparison when she wrote in her blog entry that, “[a] good carpenter is one who measures twice before cutting once. So too is a good journalist one who checks and double checks before printing information as fact.” This is a critical rule of thumb in journalism.

Note
Image Source: tonystarkz.com

External Links (also in copy)
New York Times blog post error
Telegraph UK article

Internal Links (also in copy)
Claire Theobald's blog entry