Sparsely, Sage and Timely
The evolution of typos
In the old days, typographical errors usually occurred when a Linotype operator retyped (in lead) a reporter’s typewriter copy. Even today when Linotypes have all but disappeared, most newspapers and magazines contain typos every time they’re published.
Omissions have always been the bugaboo of editors. Although lawyers chafe when reporters write that a defendant pled "innocent," the usage is long-standing. The risk of a typesetter accidentally libeling someone by dropping the not in not guilty is too great a risk to take.
The first newspaper I worked for was a daily in Iowa about the size of The Independent Journal. It was called The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, and the name was a bit of an insiders’ pun. Although in French Nonpareil means unequaled, it is also the name for a small (8-point) font of type. (What you are reading is set in 10-point Times.) In any case, we reporters were under strict orders from Nonpareil management to never use the word "shift" in a story. Editors were genuinely afraid of how readers would react if a typographical error led to the "f" being dropped.
In the days before Marin County sheriff’s dispatchers got spell-checking programs on their computers, it was common for dispatchers to inadvertently split words in half while typing at the incredible speeds necessary when taking down a concerned citizen’s call. Most of the time, the splits were easily recognizable, but occasionally they could be startling. One of the more common surprises resulted from splitting the everyday word doesn’t. Imagine a deputy’s surprise upon reading in the dispatcher’s log that "the RP [reporting party] says the subject uses cocaine at her boyfriend’s house but does snot at home."
Almost every US reporter these days writes on a computer, in effect typesetting his own story. He writes looking at a computer screen, not a piece of paper in the typewriter. The editor makes changes on his computer screen, punches a couple of buttons, and the story is automatically set in its final form.
It took at least three times as long to typewrite stories, edit them on paper, and then have a Linotype operator type the stories in lines of lead (hence the name Linotype).
But while "word processing" on a computer is at least three times as fast, mistakes can be at least three times as big. As most readers know, all the editor has to do on his computer to move a phrase from one part of a sentence to another is to highlight it on his computer screen, hit "cut" for the phrase to be taken out of its old location and then hit "paste" for it to be put in a new location.
However, it is not uncommon for this to result in a missing space between the moved phrase and the words preceding or following it. For example, after hitting "paste," I may find the sentence now reads, "He returned homeTuesday."
No problem. I just hit the space bar and separate "home" from "Tuesday." The problem comes if the phrase I’ve just moved is still highlighted when I hit the space bar. If it is, the phrase disappears. Usually, I catch this when it happens, but not always. When I don’t, the result can be equivalent to dropping the "not" in "not guilty."
Last week I did this in an editor’s note to a letter from Laurence Kirsch of Point Reyes Station, with whom the paper basically agreed. I had intended to write that in the days to come liberals "will be defending States Rights against federal attempts to alter state policies that accept homosexuality, abortions, medical marijuana etc." Unfortunately I failed to notice what was highlighted when I hit the space bar, and what came out in the paper was that liberals "will be defending federal attempts to alter state polices that accept homosexuality, abortions, medical marijuana etc." Grrr.
However, that omission pales beside one last Aug. 8 in The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal: "Rumsfeld’s Pubic Role is Shrinking." At the end of each issue of The Columbia Journalism Review is a page called: The Lower Case, which is where I read this and other recent flubs by headline writers.
CJR’s November/December issue includes some other gems such as: "DPW Workers Ordered to Anger Management" – The Providence Journal again. Or: "Teen Sex Not as Bad as It Might Seem" – Orange County’s Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Or: "Cellphone Message Leads Belgian Police to Murder Suspects" – The Vancouver Sun.
Sometimes the flubs aren’t a matter of what was omitted but rather what wasn’t. Takes this paragraph from the Aug. 1 Sacramento Bee: "The victim, 27-year-old Byron T. Wall of Sacramento, was unconscious when firefighters discovered him. He was transported to Mercy San Juan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name is being withheld pending notification of his family."
Some flubs seem almost Freudian slips: "Material in Diapers Could Help Make the Deserts Bloom" –The San Diego Union Tribune. Or: "Democrat Promises All Americans Access to Health Care while in State" – Morgantown, West Virginia’s Daily Athenaeum.
Worse yet, it would appear, in Glouster, Massachusetts, poor health may be grounds for prosecution. On Aug. 13, The Glouster Daily Times reported: "City Man Gets 4-5 Years for Choking."
As they say, "It’s not what you [mean to] say. It’s how you say it."