It was a hard day's night...

[baddecision]

... for the Gannett copy editor who let this sail through in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin publications. Wow. This is a seven-alarm ****-up in a ******* Packers story in the ******* Journal Sentinel. After Bob McGinn saw the typos in the handwriting on the wall and cut bait. Just plain wow. Gannett is a cancer.

But now, maybe Jerry Kramer will finally make the Hall of Fame ... (two, three) He'll get by with a little help from his friends.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

This "should be" a seven-alarm **** up.

But for Gannett, I an fairly confident it was greeted with a ho-hum shoulder shrug. They don't give a **** about mistakes in print, and print in general. The end game is to get rid of that pesky print product (even though it still accounts for the majority of the revenue) and have as few people as possible working for the all-digital media company.

A few months back. the local Gannett rag ran a huge feel-good Page 1A feature on a kid, and they misspelled his name in the subhed. Pretty embarrassing, right? The paper's Facebook page was full of readers ridiculing them. I am friends with the executive editor, and when I asked him about it, he said, "Eh, that's not a big deal at all. We got it corrected online."

 

[Doc Holliday]

Yeah it's bad and it should have never happened. But that's newspaper life. **** happens. Not nearly the big deal you seem to make of it.

 

[Bronco77]

Put Packers Hall of Fame center (or is it quarterback?) Ringo Starr with Packers Hall of Fame fullback James Taylor and you've got the makings of one hell of a musical lineup.

 

[jr/shotglass]

This "should be" a seven-alarm **** up.

But for Gannett, I an fairly confident it was greeted with a ho-hum shoulder shrug. They don't give a **** about mistakes in print, and print in general. The end game is to get rid of that pesky print product (even though it still accounts for the majority of the revenue) and have as few people as possible working for the all-digital media company.

A few months back. the local Gannett rag ran a huge feel-good Page 1A feature on a kid, and they misspelled his name in the subhed. Pretty embarrassing, right? The paper's Facebook page was full of readers ridiculing them. I am friends with the executive editor, and when I asked him about it, he said, "Eh, that's not a big deal at all. We got it corrected online."

Agreed in principle, but you can't lay it completely at Gannett's feet. We have other papers around here that have gotten rid of their copy desk and don't give a rat's ass about mistakes in print or online.

 

[Batman]

Yeah it's bad and it should have never happened. But that's newspaper life. **** happens. Not nearly the big deal you seem to make of it.

Exactly. Jay Leno was making fun of newspaper typos long before Gannett and the internet ruined the business.

 

[wicked]

That is what happens when one person reads the copy, does the page, posts the story online, maybe skims the story again, skims the proof, takes five minutes (not 7) to go to the john, and then moves on to the other 14 stories and three pages on deck.

 

[Alma]

Yeah it's bad and it should have never happened. But that's newspaper life. **** happens. Not nearly the big deal you seem to make of it.

It's a big deal because it's a deliberate typo.
Either that, or it's the result of a complete blithering idiot who thought Ringo Starr played in the NFL.

 

[YankeeFan]

Yeah, it's such a huge **** up, that no one noticed it until they ran the correction, which went viral.

Doesn't say much for the readership of the paper(s) that it didn't go viral based on the story, rather than the correction.

 

[PaperDoll]

Why is everyone blaming the desk, and not the reporter who made the original mistake? It's still on the writers to turn in factually accurate copy.

 

[Bronco77]

Why is everyone blaming the desk, and not the reporter who made the original mistake? It's still on the writers to turn in factually accurate copy.

A former co-worker on my college daily has covered sports at a medium-sized paper in the Midwest for more than 30 years. The paper was purchased by GateHouse a few years ago, with all desk work now done at the sweatshop in Austin. My friend produced copy that was 99 percent spotless back in college and there's no reason to believe that's changed. But he says he's even more diligent about turning in clean copy now because he knows if he makes an error, there's no longer much of a safety net.

 

[LongTimeListener]

That is what happens when one person reads the copy, does the page, posts the story online, maybe skims the story again, skims the proof, takes five minutes (not 7) to go to the john, and then moves on to the other 14 stories and three pages on deck.

Sounds like those guys have been working eight days a week.

 

[Doc Holliday]

It's a big deal because it's a deliberate typo.
Either that, or it's the result of a complete blithering idiot who thought Ringo Starr played in the NFL.

How do you know it's deliberate? I once used reins instead of reigns. Brain farts happen. Editors are supposed to catch them. Obviously, nobody read this piece very closely or at all. We've got an editor that doesn't change ****. Just scans it and passes it on, and on press releases he just copies and pastes everything word for word. That's today's ****-eating newspaper world. But deliberate? Prove it.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Agreed in principle, but you can't lay it completely at Gannett's feet. We have other papers around here that have gotten rid of their copy desk and don't give a rat's ass about mistakes in print or online.

My favorites are the ones who get rid of all copy desk people yet still ***** about typos.

 

[swingline]

Put Packers Hall of Fame center (or is it quarterback?) Ringo Starr with Packers Hall of Fame fullback James Taylor and you've got the makings of one hell of a musical lineup.

Maybe Sheryl Crow can be the kicker?

 

[da man]

How do you know it's deliberate? I once used reins instead of reigns. Brain farts happen. Editors are supposed to catch them. Obviously, nobody read this piece very closely or at all. We've got an editor that doesn't change ****. Just scans it and passes it on, and on press releases he just copies and pastes everything word for word. That's today's ****-eating newspaper world. But deliberate? Prove it.

I once wrote an advance on the college team I was covering's upcoming game against West Virginia -- except I called it Virginia Tech in every single reference.

No, it was not deliberate.

 

[CD Boogie]

gaffes like this always matter more to the people who made them -- and feel embarrassed by them -- than they do to readers. People are forgiving. If one single person (who is not a newspaper monkey) got their dander up about this, I'd be shocked. It's funny, so laugh. I doubt Jim Ringo or Ringo Starr give a flying ****

 

[da man]

It's a big deal because it's a deliberate typo.
Either that, or it's the result of a complete blithering idiot who thought Ringo Starr played in the NFL.

Or someone ****ed up and conflated the names of Jim Ringo and Bart Starr.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I once wrote an advance on the college team I was covering's upcoming game against West Virginia -- except I called it Virginia Tech in every single reference.

No, it was not deliberate.

Exactly. It happens. And editors don't always catch it. No way this was deliberate.

 

[ChrisLong]

I was editor/writer/staff of an alumni newspaper for my high school. I wrote a caption for a photo of a golfer which said that his drive went 275 feet right down the middle of the fairway. Nobody noticed it.
Bothered me for quite a while. I'm the only one who cared.