So who is Mark Powell and where has he worked?

I'd imagine somebody out there knows who he is.
Here's the story.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-09-17/news/mark-powell-s-war-on-error.php/1

Story goes on to claim that the Washington Post cancelled his subscription — for life — over calling and pointing out mistakes.
Here's some of the last bit.

He sounds a little like a former poster here, the one who shall not be named.

 

The one with his own website?

Or the one who had the run in with HR?

 

We have a guy like that in my city. He's not that good, and not that anal, but he's pretty damn good and pretty damn anal. He calls a lot to tell us all the mistakes we made.

 

That's swell. I worked at a couple places where the copy editors did extensive fact-checking on deadline. Once I learned a few tricks, I took a lot of pride in it, too, and could easily tell which newspapers don't do it. But that's the key qualifier, "deadline." It's nice for the readers when they can find a mistake and feel superior, but the skill is to be able to do it three minutes before a deadline you have to make. It's the difference between hitting a jumper in your driveway and doing it with LeBron hanging on you and people screaming at you. Whole 'nother game, Chicos.

 

I'd guess the latter.

 

And it looks like we have a winner in the where did Mark Powell work sweepstakes.
It isn't quite confirmed, because the person just thought he worked there, so I won't quite share just yet.
That didn't take long. And I don't think he is a former poster here.

If you read the story, it is pretty amazing. He's gotten some cease and desist letters for his, umm, "copy-editing."
Anyway, Frank is correct. The great editors can get it done on deadline.

 

Yeah, but he's not the same guy. Two people like that? Jeez.

 

And the confirmation is in, Mark Powell worked on the news desk at the Washington Times.

I worked with a guy like that once. He would send these incredibly long e-mails to the staff pointing out all the mistakes that the desk had either made or had slipped through.
It wasn't the writers' fault, it was the desk's fault for not catching them.
It wasn't his fault either, he was just the section editor but he couldn't be bothered with things like copy editing.
At the first the e-mails pissed people off, then it became a running joke to see what he would notice.

 

I listened to two of the voice mails to the P-I guy.

The guy is obviously very smart -- and a nut.

I hate people like this. Hate them.

I guess that's not a revelation.

 

Here's a rambling, boring article by Mark Powell printed in the Vancouver Sun, probably the article referred to by the nutball in one of his messages to the Seattle paper:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/usaid/story.html?id=a1cbb2a0-0e03-45de-b317-fea2491f10c4

 

He sounds like a newspaper stalker. And yes, I'd like to see his skills in a situation where he's editing anywhere from 10 to 15 error-filled stories per day, plus writing headlines, cutlines, etc., instead of spending months tracking down a handful of errors and then demanding a job. I wonder whether he could even pass the editing test at some places. The fact he's practically demanding a job in journalism when longtime stars are being shuffled out the door should tell you all you need to know about this guy.

 

So is/was he a poster here?