How many really dumb errors can a NYT reporter make in one story?

really, really strange.
If Cronkite didn't have a file obit prepared on him, that's weird. If he did, and it had those mistakes in it. That's even weirder.
If the reporter did the article on a tight deadline, that's weird. Famous people have obits ready. You just stick in a few grafs and go.
Just really, really weird.

 

And finally, Walter Cronkite did not really die.

 

Just another dagger in whatever public perception trmains that we are "professional".

 

jayfarrar, just to clarify and in the big picture, i really don't care, but the reporter in question did not write the obit. the reporter wrote an appraisal, which at the ny times can be an appreciation/critique of a person's life/work.

 

I think Cronkite would tell her to keep her appreciation to herself, if that horeshit's the best she can do.

 

You should have seen it before it was edited. She even originally misspelled Walter Cronkite
R-o-g-e-r M-u-d-d.

 

OK, that makes much more sense. But that means that she didn't use the Times obit as source and background material.
Or the story went out with no editing or the story was edited and nobody caught the mistakes.

 

There are certain dates in history that are absolutely ingrained in us. Those are dates I think everyone beyond sixth grade should know without trouble. Frankly, I think the first moon landing is one of those dates. Then again, I have a head for numbers. I accept that some people don't.

If you're a reporter and you're covering a story that involves the date of the first lunar landing, there's no excuse for you to not get it right.

 

If you're 45 or older, you should know most or all of those facts, but fact-check just to be sure.

If you're younger and/or just don't know, then you do a thorough job fact checking.

In a roundabout way, this reminds me of so-called informed sports fans under the age of 30 who, if asked, couldn't tell you two of the teams for which Nolan Ryan pitched, or if asked to name their all-time NBA team wouldn't include anybody who retired before 1990 because they don't have a clue.

The point is, the appreciation for history, even recent history, is zilch.

 

And that's the way it is...

 

It's weird because it seems she got damn near everything in the story wrong. As unacceptable as it might be, I can understand flipping through a source book and focusing on the wrong date looking for the moon landing or something. Or, thinking "I know that" and just slamming a date in without checking.

But to fuck up ALL that? It's like she was in high school copying the answers to the wrong test, or like she was using the wrong calendar or something. Really weird.

 

Wow. One of the commenters made me spit my drink:

"I'm sure Alessandra considers these errors her own personal September 12th."