Another Swing and a Miss at the Huffington Post

I've reached the point where I can only assume that the Huffington Post is deliberately misstating the facts of stories. It happens too often, when the stories are clear, for it to be an error.

I guess this is a case of wanting to grab eyeballs instead of reporting accurately. Eventually, that lack of accuracy catches up with an operation; if you poke around the Web, you'll see a lot of criticism of HuffPost headlines. I've simply reached the point where I don't believe the headlines until I've seen the story.

Here's today's latest:

Ben Nelson Now Says Health Care
Reform Was 'Mistake'

No. He didn't. It wouldn't make sense. What he said was that making health care the priority in 2009 was a mistake. Here's the story:

Sen. Ben Nelson said Tuesday it was a mistake for the Obama Administration to take on massive health care reforms in 2009, and suggested efforts would have been better spent addressing the economy.

This was an easy one. Move the "now" which is superfluous anyway, over after "reform" to indicate a time element. Write, "Ben Nelson Says Jobs, Not Health Care, Was Bigger Priority"

Or any number of other choices.

Please, HuffPost, hire some copy editors. It's not as if they're not available. You could start by looking here:
New York Times News Service

Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service


Minneapolis Star Tribune


Media General

La Palma

It Isn't Going to Stop

Another 78 go out the door.  

From editorsweblog
Due to their restructuring earlier this month, the Toronto Star has cut 78 editing jobs, reports Bloomberg.   The 117 year-old paper has just announced that it is outsourcing all of its copy editing to Pagemasters North America, a provider of editorial services owned by The Canadian Press.  The switch will save the paper C$4000 000 annually. 

Newsroom Diversity

Economy tests media’s diversity - The Boston Globe

While hundreds of minority journalists are in Boston for a conference this week, industry leaders are trying to tackle a growing concern: how to preserve diversity in the nation’s newsrooms.

Yes. The country is growing more ethnically diverse. Now is not the time to give up on this effort to change the makeup of newsrooms.

But I wonder about several things and am awaiting the study that shows us just who is getting cut, a salary comparison, and some real numbers that show the justification for the huge newsroom cuts compared to advertising falloff. And are young minority journalists getting hired into jobs at lower salaries or different job descriptions to make numbers while not allowing real change at the top. We shall see, eventually, I hope.

Copy Editors on the Line

Lots of rumors floating around that the next round of layoffs at various newspapers will hit copy editors the hardest. Foolish, very foolish.