Semiliterati

Illiteracy on the Web simply drives me nuts. Dig this headline:

Caroline’s Pad Put’s Hillary’s to Shame

Wince.

I happily concede that knowing how to write (or spell) isn’t a prerequisite for posting content on the Web. If it were, the total number of blogs would be closer to 184, not the 184 million that agency McCann claims.

Unfortunately, however, that little gem of a headline is posted on MSNBC, i.e., major media, a place that pays people to know how to write. Even more unfortunately, there’s plenty more where that came from.

For example, check out this LA Times “story” of the most overrated vacation spots on earth. The criteria for getting on this list of shame seems to be that someone, somewhere, once wrote to the travel editor and complained. For example, Lima is hell on earth because its art museum was closed,  Monterey Bay is a ripoff because the weather was overcast, Athens is terrible because the disco played Greek pop tunes and Reykjavik sucks because the guy’s silk underwear slid all over the horse and chafed him terribly.

Wow. Those are certainly the criteria I’d use. Not.

You gotta wonder if anybody from the editor’s desk actually reads this stuff. Doubtful, given the editorial budget-cutting that’s going on. The Kennedy story is most likely coming from a newsfeed that automatically barfs content into its proper positions, untouched by human hands. The LAT idiocy probably stemmed from unfilled space, an eager intern with some pretty travel shots and no time for oversight.

In the overall scheme of things, a few typos, or a really dumb (and rather unjust) story or three aren’t going to break the bank. But has anyone considered the corollary? If major media can’t spend the money to make sure things are spelled accurately, what does that say about the accuracy of their facts?

Scary.

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