**It Happens

Perhaps it won't surprise anybody, or perhaps you've all heard it before, but readers have been saying, "Don't you have proofreaders?" since, oh, 1750.

 

Yes, but we actually had them until 1967!

 

Not enough copy editors, indeed.

 

This is what happens when companies try to bleed every drop out of increasingly smaller and/or non-existent stones. It's understandable that readers would be a bit upset ... how many newspapers are really offering more and better? Are they slashing the subscription rates at the same rates the suits have eliminated jobs and issued across-the-board paycuts?

But do readers want to hear excuses? No. We, as a profession in addition to the great majority of this board, aren't into excuses. There's little to do except sit on the grenade and move forward - without further excuse.

 

When it's in a headline, sorry, it's bullshit and laziness. As busy as I've seen newsrooms, there is always 10 seconds to look at the headlines.

 

I agree. I don't care how many pages you have to read in a given night, there's no excuse for a professional to miss something like that in display type. That's like missing an extra point. It happens, but it shouldn't.

And I say this as guy who once let through "So-and-so had three shits and 2 runs ... " in the lede of a baseball gamer. I know it happens. But that doesn't make it suck any less.

 

I agree on this, shouldn't happen in a headline. If anything gets a final scan on the page, it should be headlines, followed by cutlines. The big type is what most people pay attention to. Also, don't make excuses to readers. Say you're sorry, made a mistake, we'll do better.

 

There's also a matter of just having standards. If you're going to set the bar at "it's OK to have 'shits' in a headline because we used to have a lot more people here," there's basically nothing you're ever going to feel obligated to do right.

Not saying anyone should lose a job. But everyone should feel like ... shift.

 

What the hell did that guy eat before the game?

 

I remember that guy -- Diarrhea Jones.

 

He was a regular in the line-up.