Meryle Secrest
2 hrs · Washington, DC ·
There are those who say that the Washington Post is badly edited. The egregious spelling error on the banner headline, p. A5 of today’s paper, which several people had to have approved of, confirms this.
Meryle Secrest The worst I have ever seen in a big newspaper.
Melinda Henneberger I don’t think several people had to have approved; the copy desk is pretty tiny now, and they are shoveling copy as fast as they can.
Meryle Secrest Oh well, that makes it okay then! (I don’t think.)
Melinda Henneberger No, it definitely doesn’t, but I feel for them.
Annie Groer Well, perhaps they are just underpayed, as the headline would have it.
Meryle Secrest Maybe just under-educated
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What was the Washington Post’s A-section headline?
Clinton aide was allegedly overpayed while at State
The head used at washingtonpost.com:
Top Clinton aide accused of receiving overpayments at State Department
“Fun article. And three typos observed on one casual read. Online articles are fixable, correctable, aren’t they? Has the Post considered an email address to report typos? Something like, typos@washingtonpost.com ?”
Coincidentally, before seeing this blog, this morning I posted the above comment on Marc Fisher’s Facebook post of Hendrix’s article on poker players who share a house near a MD casino. There is no simple way to alert the Post to an online typo. A few times I have emailed the reporter directly (not this time) and gotten no response.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10100542500192072&id=1102103
Once, long ago, I wrote a story about Sen. Gary Hart and his stance on some veterans issues. I was a very cub reporter, thrilled to be interviewing a U.S. Senator. I worked long and hard at getting every detail correct, only to see the headline my finally published piece not only bore incorrect information, it actually contradicted much of the reporting. I concluded then that editors were either illiterates, or complete ninnies. Nothing in my experience since then has refuted that. Civilization will not end due to a lack of editorial review.
I have advocated many times, in emails to Marty Baron and others, for a “Corrections” page that would be linked to from the home page. It seems to me that the Post would want to enlist the help of its educated readership to ensure accuracy.
Currently, you must navigate from “Help and Contact Info” on the home page to find: “How do I submit a correction?” There you will be given the email “corrections@washpost.com” and this message:
“The Washington Post is committed to correcting errors that appear in the newspaper. Those interested in contacting the paper for that purpose can send an e-mail to corrections@washpost.com or call the main number, 202-334-6000, and ask to be connected to the desk involved — National, Foreign, Metro, Style, Sports, Business or any of the weekly sections. In addition, the ombudsman’s number is 202-334-7582.”
As we all know, there has not been an ombudsman for some time.The “Reader Representative” mentioned on the Post’s website rarely, if ever, has returned my emails with a relevant comment. Perhaps more than half the time, reporters will respond when I point out a typo or mistake. One columnist who shall remain nameless has never acknowledged my emails when I have written to challenge or comment on his/her column.