The Lost Art Of The Newspaper

I keep lamenting about the lost art of writing and publishing a newspaper. I give all credit to polishing my English only because I was and still am a voracious reader of the Editorial section of the Hindu. In the bygone days when there were no computers around, I guess news editors would go through each line, read each and every element, word by word and make corrections accordingly. As a direct consequence there would be no spelling errors or chance of any kind of mistake cropping up. But in the days of Technology and Computers where there are tools available to check all kinds of mistakes, irony is that errors have gone up. I have written directly to the newspapers with the fond hope that they would correct their mistakes and future editions would be error free.

So This blog is appealing to the Editor of the Economic Times and the Times of India to directly to fall in line and give due importance to make corrections/Deletions/Additions before the edition goes for the final print. Important point to be noted is that it irritates, it pains, and finally there will be readers dropping off because advice being given is not paid heed to. These may be small errors but can be points of irritant to the reader especially if the reader happens to be knowledgeable. Now lets look at the errors that I wish to point out. These errors appear in the Economic Times(Chennai Edition) and Times of India(Chennai) Edition dated 10th December 2016:

Error 1.

See bottom middle: MLA's asked to leave for City-Page 11

I went to page 11 to read the same report but could not find it on Page 11. Then when i turned to Page 7 I found the report I wanted to read. It was a small error but irritating to the Reader. There will be readers who will just drop off out of disgust at not having found the report where they expected to find it.

Found the report on Page 7.

Error 2 Times of India: This is a blatant error and a crime by cricketing standards, for all lovers of the Game of Cricket. Cricketer Tillakaratne Dilshan is a popular Batsman and not a bowler. Now read this article and read what is attributed to him.

Read under Daryl Harper-Thanks to a ferocious delivery by Tillakaratne Dilshan?? should read as ferocious drive. Dilshan by the way is a innocuous off spinner, question of Ferocious Delivery does not arise at all.

Now the question is that Newspapers are supposed to convey events as they unfold and accurate to the best of their knowledge. Are Today's newspapers compromising on news that they report and focusing all their energies on the commercial ads they carry. Ads are money spinners and hence are error free, God Forbid there is an error, the corporate would bring the skies down. However how about setting their own house in order and that is precisely the point I wish to make-The Lost Art Of The Newspaper