Poor editing, quality of online journalism

[I D Shukhov]

It's a small thing, but notice how "whining" is used instead of what I think should be "whinnying".   

If you like the farm life but aren't all that keen on all the whining and clucking of an animal farm, perhaps a degree in horticulture is growing on you.

http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_useless_degrees.htm?kid=1KWNU

[The Gorn]

"What? Horses don't whiney?"

[I D Shukhov]

"What? Horses don't whiney?"

I started beating the last horse of mine that whined and they had to pull me off of him!

[Walter Mitty]

It's a small thing, but notice how "whining" is used instead of what I think should be "whinnying".   

I've noticed several times when the network news anchors have misspoken, whether it's using the wrong word or the wrong pronunciation of a word.  I can't bring a specific instance to mind right now, but it happens so frequently that it passes for acceptable practice.

I imagine that old time newscasters like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite were more careful,  but that may be just my selective memory at work. 

[TRexx]

I imagine that old time newscasters like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite were more careful,  but that may be just my selective memory at work.

I remember watching an interview with one of those old timers -- possibly Charles Kuralt -  when this issue was raised.  He said that virtually all of them came out of the print media where they learned to write.  Also, they made it a game to catch each other making mistakes and levy fines (a drink or a cigar) on the offender. 

BTW my favorite current error is the pronunciation of "cache", as in "while searching the house the soldiers found a  cache of weapons".   About half the time it is pronounced "kah-SHAY"

[Richardk]

The quality is getting pretty poor based on how often we see these kinds of mistakes and it's in both spoken and written stories. Are we getting dumber or just sloppy?

[The Gorn]

Stories like this affirm my desire to get into copywriting.

I used to be intimidated by literary credentials. In reality, almost nobody in the commercial world or even the journalistic world knows how to write very well, and writing quality is job "last". I may as well go for it because supposedly credentialed, prestigious organizations come off like bozos regularly.

Current example: on ABC World News the other night, there was a piece about Obama taking steps to open up and ease foreign tourism in the US, including beefing up foreign visa applications.

One of the title cards during the piece said that part of the action would consist of increasing the number of diplomatic consults in countries like Brazil which have long wait times for US visas.

I just barely noticed this and when I did, I thought "how Idiocracy of them."

[DG9]

On the flip side, it makes me wonder if anyone cares anymore.  I see it all the time too, on big name news sources!  This is how people coming out of college write, content is pushed out fast in such quantity that a few mistakes here and there are disregarded (or not noticed).  Good writing is on the way out?

[TRexx]

One of the reasons I like NPR is the quality of their writing.  But they do one thing that really grates on me.  In the morning news report, instead of saying:

"Today Mitt Romney will campaign in South Carolina"

they say:
 
"Today Mitt Romney campaigns in South Carolina"

[I D Shukhov]

On the flip side, it makes me wonder if anyone cares anymore.  I see it all the time too, on big name news sources!  This is how people coming out of college write, content is pushed out fast in such quantity that a few mistakes here and there are disregarded (or not noticed).  Good writing is on the way out?

Check out the 2007 GRE scores for the University of Md. :

Average verbal GRE score of new entrants in master's program   523
Average quantitative GRE score of new entrants in master's program   754
Average verbal GRE score of new entrants in doctoral program   519
Average quantitative GRE score of new entrants in doctoral program   760

http://www.greexplorer.com/Average-GRE-Scores/University-of-Maryland--College-Park.html

Certainly some programs are going to care more about verbal ability than other programs, but even at that, on the average they don't care.