I’m baaaacccckkk! After a long, long hiatus, mostly due to COVID and not feeling particularly inspired, I’ve been feeling lately like it’s time to resurrect the fun that I had with the blog. I started the post below back in early 2021, and now over 2 years later in late 2023, I’m finally going to finish it. So here we go, with more examples of found internet stories that would have benefitted from an editor’s eye.

From Us magazine on January 18, 2021:

Oh, for the love of God, she wasn’t born Betty Marion White Ludden, she married Allen Ludden. I don’t know if they forgot a comma and meant to write “born Betty Marion White, Ludden got her start” or what, but it’s wrong. Just wrong.

I’d like to say it’s taking me longer to find these kooky headlines because I’m reading less online news, but since that’s not true, maybe the editors aren’t dead but merely sleeping…heavily sleeping. They sure were on 11/4/2023 at People in a story about Mark Harmon:

Seriously? How difficult is it to spell “Harmon”?

A second story the same day produced a second mistake, so the editor really WAS asleep at the wheel. In a story about Neil Diamond’s children I saw this:

I had to read that one about 5 times before I was sure I was reading it correctly. Jessie likely didn’t divorce his son; he divorced his wife, Sheryl. Yikes!

I guess no one is familiar with acronyms anymore. From The Guardian on 11/6/23, from both the headline of the article as well as the text:

It’s ICE, not Ice and is an acronym. Apparently, it’s impossible to find editors, despite the fact that the role is one that is truly all online and could be done remotely as a matter of routine.

And finally, from The Huffington Post on 11/22/23, from a sweet story by Sarah Paulson about Matthew Perry (could I BE any sadder about that?)…”goad”. Say what?

I keep seeing ads on Facebook and in games about “work as a proofreader at home”. Perhaps the universe is sending me a message and I should check that out as a side gig? On the other hand, it feels like suspicious click bait so perhaps best to leave well enough alone.