thedrifter
05-16-05, 04:48 AM
We Don't Need No Stinking Editors
May 15, 2005
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by Burt Prelutsky
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Sometimes I get the idea that my daily newspaper, the L.A. Times, is cutting a few too many corners. I’m getting the feeling that in a desperate attempt to save a few bucks, they’ve slashed not only editors, copyreaders and fact checkers, but even reporters with junior high diplomas. I mean, it’s one thing to put out a newspaper while keeping an eye on the bottom line and quite another to hire a bunch of people who can’t spell bottom line.
Having studied the paper closely for the past several months, I’d say that the mistakes fall mainly into three general areas. The first of these is geography. The second is math. The third is factual.
Factual errors range all over the place. For instance, in a sports article about the Daytona 500, it stated that Junior Johnson provided a push to Jeff Gordon near the end of the race. It was Jimmie Johnson, no relation. In another sports story, it gave Pepperdine pitcher Paul Coleman’s record as 8-1. It was actually 2-0.
It seems that they were slightly mistaken when they identified a former congressman as the late Ed Roybal. Tardy, perhaps, but not late. He’s 89 and still around.
They claimed that Oscar winner Morgan Freeman was an alumnus of “Zoom.” Make that “The Electric Company.”
The Times identified the author of “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” as Daniel Dafoe, instead of Defoe.
The paper confused Birmingham, Alabama, with Montgomery. But at least, for once, they got the state right.
They confused “War and Peace” with “A Tale of Two Cities,” but, to be fair, they were both written in the same century.
The Times identified Pat Kingsley as a super agent. For all I know, Ms. Kingsley may be a super person, but she’s not an agent. She’s a publicist. In a photo caption of a championship fight, they mistook Bernard Hopkins for his opponent, Howard Eastman.
In a photo caption for a local play, the paper identified the three actors pictured as Don Tai, Reggie Lee and Thomas Isao Morinaka, when in fact they were Greg Watanabe, Kipp Shiotani and Blake Kushi. What the heck do they do down there? Just guess? Not a newspaper to rest on its laurels, soon after, they ran a photo of the singing group Duran Duran, and managed to reverse all their names in the caption. Fortunately, there are five guys in the group, so at least they got Simon LeBon, the fellow in the middle, correct.
The Times claimed that Harvard was founded in 1640. They came so close. It was actually 1636.
In Sandra Dee’s obituary, the paper insisted that the L.A. Mirror-News, had been a magazine. It had been a newspaper, and a pretty good one. The Times also claimed that Ms. Dee and her husband, Bobby Darin, had made two movies together. Make that three.
They misidentified Lions Gate Films president of production Steve Paseornek, calling him Steve Pasternak. But, heck, they also mistook ex-Governor Gray Davis for ex-Governor Pete Wilson.
In spite of the fact that, for a while, his name was in the paper every day, they spelled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ name Gonzalez. They confused Seattle with Chicago. Easy to do, though, as they both have seven letters.
The Times claimed that at the time she was murdered, Nicole Brown Simpson was still married to O.J. So, apparently, O.J. wasn’t the only one laboring under that delusion.
They thought that the cedar tree on the flag of Lebanon was a cypress. The obituary of Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos must have confused her relatives and her fellow nuns when the Times identified her as Sister Lucia Marto. They also changed the name of attorney Eric Chase to Case. Considering his profession, though, he might consider making it permanent.
In an article about fraud in the mortgage industry, the Times referred to a firm as Mortgage Capital. A few days later, in correcting the matter, the paper reported that the full name of the sleazy outfit was Mortgage Capital Resources – and, furthermore, assured us it was in no way connected to Mortgage Capital Associates. This time you can’t really blame the newspaper. Must every company in that business use some combination of just those three or four boring words? If I were opening up shop, I’d call it Burt’s Mortgages.
In another business-related item, the Times claimed that in 1991, the Executive Life Insurance Company was the largest in the country. At the time, it was merely the largest in California. The insurance business is another with a paucity of names. I’d call my outfit Burt’s Insurance.
In quoting Jeff Gannon, the paper reported that he’d asked President Bush how he could work with Democrats “who seem to have distanced themselves from reality.” In asking his question, he had actually, and more aptly, said “divorced from reality.” But it’s in the realm of math that the Times separates itself from the pack. When push comes to shove, high school newspapers simply can’t compete with a major metropolitan daily.
For example, in an article about the 1940s book and movie “Mildred Pierce,” the Times reported that if restaurant owner Pierce, on her opening night, had served dinner to 48 people at 85 cents-a-person, she’d have made over $80. Think the high school faculty advisor wouldn’t have pointed out to the teenage editor that Mildred’s gross would have been $40.80?
Even if that pesky advisor hadn’t caught that one, what chance would the 17-year- old have of getting away with claiming that a planned bridge linking Chiloe Island to Chile will be 50 miles long, not 500?
And what if in an article about French wine exports, the kid had confused 1999’s 1.6 billion liters with 160 billion, and 2004’s 1.4 billion liters with 140 billion? Okay, you say, but why would a high school paper be reporting on French wine exports in the first place? Fine, I won’t argue the point. But you have to agree that kids buy a lot of DVDs. Well, do you think that spoilsport of a faculty advisor would let the ambitious young tyke get away with calling hundreds of millions of DVDs hundreds of billions? No way, even though I think we’d all agree that billions is a far grabbier word than mere millions.
My own concern is that unless those eager young journalists of today are left unshackled, and encouraged to be all they can be, some day my L.A. Times will be just another blah newspaper, filled with dull, insipid, unimpeachable facts!
Burt Prelutsky
Ellie
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Burt Prelutsky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes I get the idea that my daily newspaper, the L.A. Times, is cutting a few too many corners. I’m getting the feeling that in a desperate attempt to save a few bucks, they’ve slashed not only editors, copyreaders and fact checkers, but even reporters with junior high diplomas. I mean, it’s one thing to put out a newspaper while keeping an eye on the bottom line and quite another to hire a bunch of people who can’t spell bottom line.
Having studied the paper closely for the past several months, I’d say that the mistakes fall mainly into three general areas. The first of these is geography. The second is math. The third is factual.
Factual errors range all over the place. For instance, in a sports article about the Daytona 500, it stated that Junior Johnson provided a push to Jeff Gordon near the end of the race. It was Jimmie Johnson, no relation. In another sports story, it gave Pepperdine pitcher Paul Coleman’s record as 8-1. It was actually 2-0.
It seems that they were slightly mistaken when they identified a former congressman as the late Ed Roybal. Tardy, perhaps, but not late. He’s 89 and still around.
They claimed that Oscar winner Morgan Freeman was an alumnus of “Zoom.” Make that “The Electric Company.”
The Times identified the author of “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” as Daniel Dafoe, instead of Defoe.
The paper confused Birmingham, Alabama, with Montgomery. But at least, for once, they got the state right.
They confused “War and Peace” with “A Tale of Two Cities,” but, to be fair, they were both written in the same century.
The Times identified Pat Kingsley as a super agent. For all I know, Ms. Kingsley may be a super person, but she’s not an agent. She’s a publicist. In a photo caption of a championship fight, they mistook Bernard Hopkins for his opponent, Howard Eastman.
In a photo caption for a local play, the paper identified the three actors pictured as Don Tai, Reggie Lee and Thomas Isao Morinaka, when in fact they were Greg Watanabe, Kipp Shiotani and Blake Kushi. What the heck do they do down there? Just guess? Not a newspaper to rest on its laurels, soon after, they ran a photo of the singing group Duran Duran, and managed to reverse all their names in the caption. Fortunately, there are five guys in the group, so at least they got Simon LeBon, the fellow in the middle, correct.
The Times claimed that Harvard was founded in 1640. They came so close. It was actually 1636.
In Sandra Dee’s obituary, the paper insisted that the L.A. Mirror-News, had been a magazine. It had been a newspaper, and a pretty good one. The Times also claimed that Ms. Dee and her husband, Bobby Darin, had made two movies together. Make that three.
They misidentified Lions Gate Films president of production Steve Paseornek, calling him Steve Pasternak. But, heck, they also mistook ex-Governor Gray Davis for ex-Governor Pete Wilson.
In spite of the fact that, for a while, his name was in the paper every day, they spelled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ name Gonzalez. They confused Seattle with Chicago. Easy to do, though, as they both have seven letters.
The Times claimed that at the time she was murdered, Nicole Brown Simpson was still married to O.J. So, apparently, O.J. wasn’t the only one laboring under that delusion.
They thought that the cedar tree on the flag of Lebanon was a cypress. The obituary of Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos must have confused her relatives and her fellow nuns when the Times identified her as Sister Lucia Marto. They also changed the name of attorney Eric Chase to Case. Considering his profession, though, he might consider making it permanent.
In an article about fraud in the mortgage industry, the Times referred to a firm as Mortgage Capital. A few days later, in correcting the matter, the paper reported that the full name of the sleazy outfit was Mortgage Capital Resources – and, furthermore, assured us it was in no way connected to Mortgage Capital Associates. This time you can’t really blame the newspaper. Must every company in that business use some combination of just those three or four boring words? If I were opening up shop, I’d call it Burt’s Mortgages.
In another business-related item, the Times claimed that in 1991, the Executive Life Insurance Company was the largest in the country. At the time, it was merely the largest in California. The insurance business is another with a paucity of names. I’d call my outfit Burt’s Insurance.
In quoting Jeff Gannon, the paper reported that he’d asked President Bush how he could work with Democrats “who seem to have distanced themselves from reality.” In asking his question, he had actually, and more aptly, said “divorced from reality.” But it’s in the realm of math that the Times separates itself from the pack. When push comes to shove, high school newspapers simply can’t compete with a major metropolitan daily.
For example, in an article about the 1940s book and movie “Mildred Pierce,” the Times reported that if restaurant owner Pierce, on her opening night, had served dinner to 48 people at 85 cents-a-person, she’d have made over $80. Think the high school faculty advisor wouldn’t have pointed out to the teenage editor that Mildred’s gross would have been $40.80?
Even if that pesky advisor hadn’t caught that one, what chance would the 17-year- old have of getting away with claiming that a planned bridge linking Chiloe Island to Chile will be 50 miles long, not 500?
And what if in an article about French wine exports, the kid had confused 1999’s 1.6 billion liters with 160 billion, and 2004’s 1.4 billion liters with 140 billion? Okay, you say, but why would a high school paper be reporting on French wine exports in the first place? Fine, I won’t argue the point. But you have to agree that kids buy a lot of DVDs. Well, do you think that spoilsport of a faculty advisor would let the ambitious young tyke get away with calling hundreds of millions of DVDs hundreds of billions? No way, even though I think we’d all agree that billions is a far grabbier word than mere millions.
My own concern is that unless those eager young journalists of today are left unshackled, and encouraged to be all they can be, some day my L.A. Times will be just another blah newspaper, filled with dull, insipid, unimpeachable facts!
Burt Prelutsky
Ellie