Note: I wrote this piece a week ago and managed not to post it. Bad Blogger.
Wow, the Daily News got plunked from afar. Check out this blog from Westwood.
I've never been a fan of sniping at the News or newspapers in general for obvious editing errors and typos.
I guess my reluctance stems partly from the fact I still write for a living and wrote for newspapers at one time. I've made a few mistakes in my day. I still do from time-to-time so I just don't think it's good karma to be holding up a shining light to someone else's silly mistake (which I guess I just did by posting to the blog up above.)
I'm far less tolerant of mistakes that might actually have a negative impact. Say, for instance, an article or headline suggests a business is closing rather than opening a new location.
I also think editorial judgment is fair game, such as why did the Daily News run an article on Karp holding off when I swear it ran the same article a few months ago (although I can't find it on the archives. Am I crazy for remembering this?)
I understand some of this "ha-ha, look at the dumb newspaper" is a bit of backlash, since it's the job of newspapers to report on everyone else's foibles, failures, mistakes and tragedies. (For the record, newspapers also report on successes, victories, achievements and heart-warming stories as well.)
Clearly, reporters having to take pokes for silly mistake is just part of the territory. Bloggers have to take the same, I suppose. But I sometimes wonder if folks--both reporters and their subjects--would behave differently if they spent some real time on the other side of the newsprint.
Anyway, I'll add the Westwood blog to the blog roll.
4 comments:
When Newburyport's newspaper, which has published countless stories on Westwood Station (in relation to New England Development), publishes yet another story but this time attributes the real estate to Provincetown, that is more than an error.
Newspaper editors need to realize that once content goes online, it is immediately indexed by search engines (and thus quickly retrievable by people). I read the city's newspaper, but not in print and not on their website; I receive stories by both RSS and Google Alerts. I may be among few 01950 citizens to get my news this way, but for me, it's effortless and I can scan the headlines and read what I want.
Do read the Westwood Blog. Its maintainer, Dave Atkins, is a friend of mine; and he and I have talked at length about ways that Newburyport's news editors and reporters need to embrace the internet.
More than an error? Please explain. Are you suggesting it's a really big error? Or that the editors of the Daily News want us all to think Westwood is in Provincetown?
Westwood? Were'nt they talking about Deadwood?
James Shanley
ari, have you thought to share some of your many ways to embrace the internet with anyone.
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