In case you missed the Herald's Obama/Osama gaffe

HUGE apology (0.00 / 0)

And suggestion for reason - my Helpful Henry computer keeps finishing words for me when I type documents or emails.

It could also be a Spellcheck error - except it DOES say 'Obama' properly once.  (Did you kow if you run the name of State Rep. Demetrius Atsalis through spellcheck it comes out Deleterious Assails?)

Yr. Obedient Servant, Peter Porcupine, Republican

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by: Peter Porcupine @ Tue Nov 20, 2007 at 21:54:57 PM CST

Yes... (0.00 / 0)

... but how did a spellcheck error get past the the writer and the various editors it's got to go through...?

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"Providing health care to the uninsured is a job killer, while not providing health care is merely a people killer....   Bonus: Job Openings!!"

--Stephen Colbert

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by: petr @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 08:18:20 AM CST

[ Parent ]

The buck stops with humans! (0.00 / 0)

Let's hear it for human responsibility!

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by: hubspoke @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 08:54:50 AM CST

[ Parent ]

every mistake is intentional and evil? (0.00 / 0)

There are a lot of words in every story on every page every day. If you went through it with a fine tooth comb, you'd find other errors like this.

If it were Odama instead of Osama no one would be offended. But it also wouldn't be as likely to make the paper because Odama isn't a word/name that editors see in stories all the time.

There are several possible scenarios.
A--Eagan wants to help Romney and/or tweak Obama and does it intentionally.

B--"The Herald" is looking to subtly undermine the Obama campaign. As an institution they have taken a hands on approach to this or handed down an unwritten edict to creatively connect him to Public Enemy #1.

C--Editing software ran amok.

D--An editor, wistfully looking forward to their Thanksgiving trip to Hometown, U.S.A. simply wasn't paying as close attention as he should have.

I'm guessing it's closer to C&D than A&B. Maybe I'm naive to the vast, evil conspiracy. It wouldn't be the first time.

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I am noternie.

More than a full year's worth of blogginess at  Someday I Will.

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by: noternie @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 09:17:36 AM CST

[ Parent ]

-twitch- (6.00 / 1)

 

*[new]  every mistake is intentional and evil?  (0.00 / 0)

There are a lot of words in every story on every page every day. If you went through it with a fine tooth comb, you'd find other errors like this.

Which, coincidentally (or... not...) is the job description of a newspaper editor!!!

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"Providing health care to the uninsured is a job killer, while not providing health care is merely a people killer....   Bonus: Job Openings!!"

--Stephen Colbert

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by: petr @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 09:28:17 AM CST

[ Parent ]

hence the word mistake (0.00 / 0)

It was intentional or it was not. Let's start with that.

I think it was not. I think it was a mistake. By definition that means I think they didn't do something the way it sould be done. I'm not excusing it, but I'm not as fired up about it as I am when they run a story with an intentionally misleading narrative.

Sometimes my printer jams, even though it is the job description of the rollers to move the paper through the machine.

There are consipiracies I think exist. But I also fear the concept of an honest mistake is being lost. This, I think, could have been an honest mistake.

"Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place."--Jonathan Bender.

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I am noternie.

More than a full year's worth of blogginess at  Someday I Will.

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by: noternie @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 09:51:11 AM CST

[ Parent ]

C&D do not explain the mistake (0.00 / 0)

They just explain why it wasn't caught. I agree this was probably not intentional, but given that there is no way this could be a typographical error given the distance of b and s on the keyboard, it has to be a brain fart on the part of the typist. The most benevolent explanation is that the typist -- presumably the author -- simply had Osama on the brain at the time. A less generous possibility is that the writer actually uses "Osama" jokingly to refer to Obama on a regular basis in conversation and it unconciously slipped in.

In any case, it should have been caught by a human editor. How long does it take to read the Herald cover to cover anyway?

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by: HR's Kevin @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:01:21 AM CST

[ Parent ]

you've never had software run amok, have you? (0.00 / 0)

Changing one letter in a word twice is the least of what can happen.

And someone not paying attention could easily result in a word being corrected or uncorrected twice.

How long does it take to read the Herald? Not as much time as it takes to "edit" the Herald.

Again, I think it's a mistake. A poor job. An example of shoddy editing. I think all the people who should have caught it should be found, identified and reprimanded. I think they should get a "needs work" on their progress report for "subject: copy editing."

But unless some other complelling evidence is shown, I do not believe this was intentional. "They" have much more subtle and effective ways to tank the guy than transposing his name at the end of a column only the political junkies are likely to read all the way through.

If an admission is made or it is shown to be a regular occourence, fine. I'll say they are horrendous people and will volunteer to hold down their thumbs while you apply the screws.

But do we have to pull the pitchforks out of the closet, light torches and form a posse every time we're short a few cattle in the meadow? Sometimes there's just a break in the fence.

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I am noternie.

More than a full year's worth of blogginess at  Someday I Will.

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by: noternie @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:27:25 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Visibilites vs Disabilities (5.00 / 2)

I received a hard copy letter once from a campaign, asking us to schedule two "disabilities" a week.  I was left to assume that they were really asking us to schedule two "visibilities" a week.  It is not a normal plural noun.  I have often thought of whether or not scheduling disabilities would be helpful in ensuring that "volunteers" actually stuck to their committments. ;)

Kate Donaghue, volunteer.

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by: Kate @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 15:12:05 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I can better that (0.00 / 0)

I used to work in a think tank called the "Institute for Research on Public Policy".

One day years ago, a press release was sent out to all the media in the country -- and most of its academic collectives -- and the full name of the Institute was missing the first l.  That was a fun day.

~~~~
Believe it or not, I have even more to say...

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by: sabutai @ Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 23:46:47 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I don't buy your "software run amok" explanation (0.00 / 0)

How exactly would it happen that their editing software would "run amok" and change Obama to Osama? It just does not seem at all likely. The best I could come up with would be that they had Osama in their spelling dictionary but not Obama and some idiot editor saw the red line under Obama and just picked the first option that came up. However, it would be strange that they would add Osama to their dictionary but not Obama this late in the election cycle.

Anyway, it is no wonder that the Herald has fallen behind the Metro in circulation (ok, take that with a grain of salt -- I read it in the Metro).

BTW, I have plenty of experience with "software run amok" since I am a software engineer.

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by: HR's Kevin @ Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 08:37:53 AM CST

[ Parent ]

To be generous to noternie... (0.00 / 0)

...there are word processing programs that can be configured to automatically "correct" spelling errors.  Wordperfect can be configured that way, and I suspect that MS Word (which I despise) can, too.

The thing is, that Amok-running speculation would hold water if it happened with every instance of "Obama" -> "Osama" in the text.  But that was not the case.

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by: raj @ Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 10:42:01 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Going back to Peter Porcupine @ Tue Nov 20, 2007 at 22:54:57 PM EST (0.00 / 0)

And suggestion for reason - my Helpful Henry computer keeps finishing words for me when I type documents or emails.

That used to be called "macros," type in a couple of letters, and the program will automatically expand it for you.   Sometimes in an undesired manner.  And that is why I turn off macro completion on vertually every program I use.  Macro completion is annoying, and usually not worth the effort..

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by: raj @ Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 06:56:23 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Apparently... (0.00 / 0)

...the Boston Herald is cutting costs by cutting editors.  Eagan's column is unforgivable.  Maybe they should consider further cutting costs by cutting her.

Although, on her first reference, maybe they in the "media" were covering Osama incessantly.  It's difficult to fathom how they could cover someone who is holed away somewhere (goodness knows where) incessantly, but I suppose it's possible.

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by: raj @ Tue Nov 20, 2007 at 22:17:39 PM CST

Sloppy journalism/editing (5.00 / 2)

Knowing that Mitt Romney has taken photos with, and tacitly condoned signs that link "Obama" with "Osama" (it was prominently in news photos more than once) and that Barack Obama has an unusual name anyway... any serious journalistic enterprise should be scrupulous about getting his name right, especially since he is in a hotly contested presidential race.

They will apologize if they have a shred of integrity. How contritely is another matter. Journalistically this sucks bigtime.

I'm for John Edwards, not Obama, btw, in case anyone cares. I share David Sirota's view http://action.credom... .

John Edwards, as shown by this clip, is speaking out on what I believe is the fundamental issue of our time - an issue that my book shows is at the core of every other issue, whether it is Iraq, wages, health care, retirement security, trade, immigration, global warming, you name it. That issue is what my book is all about - the hostile takeover of our government, or, as Edwards says, the fact that "powerful interests, particularly corporate interests, have literally taken over this government."

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by: hubspoke @ Tue Nov 20, 2007 at 22:53:53 PM CST

I doubt it (0.00 / 0)

I would hardly expect an apology from them. The Herald's staff had to have had full knowledge of that before it went to press.

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by: strat0477 @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 01:14:57 AM CST

An observation... (0.00 / 0)

given the ubiquity of computers, I wuld presume that Eagan (or her transcriber) would have been required to submit copy via computer word processing files.  And given the kerfuffle over the Obama/Osama over the last few months, it seems to me that an editor could have done a CTRL-F (or whatever, a text search) on the word "Osama" to determine whether the word "Osama" was being used properly in the article.  

The editor would not have needed to read the entire article with a fine tooth comb to detect the error.  I guess newspaper editors are just dumb.

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by: raj @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:18:18 AM CST

how do I put this delicately... (6.00 / 1)

You spelled "would" wrong. Missed it by a single letter.

I'm not going to guess that you're dumb. I'll just guess it was an honest mistake.

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I am noternie.

More than a full year's worth of blogginess at  Someday I Will.

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by: noternie @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:30:37 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Unless it has been lost on you... (3.00 / 1)

...I am not being paid to write these comments.  Eagan is, and her editor is being paid to edit her.

When I was being paid for what I wrote, I actually did do what I wrote.

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by: raj @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:43:01 AM CST

[ Parent ]

yeah but (6.00 / 2)

It happened in a post about inadequate editing.

Granted, we haven't had a kerfuffle over "would." But given the ubiquity of posts on the very topic, it was a bit interesting that you'd lead with a typo.

If I were you, I "wuld've" gone with the "that's how it's spelled in German" defense. At least that wuld've had a shot at humor.

I was hoping my previous post culd be taken at least somewhat in jest. Sorry it wasn't. Hope this one is.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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I am noternie.

More than a full year's worth of blogginess at  Someday I Will.

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by: noternie @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:52:48 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Actually... (0.00 / 0)

If I were you, I "wuld've" gone with the "that's how it's spelled in German" defense

...it would be "wuerde" in German, which would not be pronounced in anything close to a similar manner.

Don't eat too much tomorrow.  It's difficult to shed the pounds this time of year.

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by: raj @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 12:46:34 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Of course it's accidental (0.00 / 0)

It's the sort of brain-cramp error that I've made on a few occasions myself over the years. And the Herald these days is not exactly crawling with eagle-eyed editors who are going to catch something like this.

Save your outrage for when Howie does something like this on purpose.

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by: dkennedy @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:37:42 AM CST

There's the slur and there's how you deal with it (5.80 / 5)

The chat about whether it was intentional or a mistake is interesting but either way, the man's name has been conflated with that of a mass murderer. Therefore the Boston Herald owes the public an acknowledgment and apology. That is the issue. Let them say it was purely a typographical error or an inadvertent misspelling if they wish. It was offensive nonetheless and they must take responsibility for it if they have ethical integrity.

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by: hubspoke @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 11:23:50 AM CST

Yes (0.00 / 0)

Can't disagree, and I should have added that point.

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by: dkennedy @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 11:32:20 AM CST

[ Parent ]

the building (6.00 / 1)

When I was at Brandeis, one time an article in The Justice, our student newspaper, quoted my friend Sara Ravid '96 several times.  Inexplicably, someone did a search and replace that replaced all occurrences of "Ravid" in the article with "the building".  When they first mentioned her, it was "Sara the Building '96", and from then one, each time they quoted her it was "according to the building" or "the building said".  Nobody caught it and it went to print.

I don't expect the Herald to have much better quality than my college newspaper, really.

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by: Cos @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 11:33:40 AM CST

When I was in grad school, a tired colleague (0.00 / 0)

Let his spellchecker replace every occurrence of "Schlegel" in a philosophy paper with "Schlemiel."  Fortunately he caught the mistake before turning in the paper.  But we still laugh about it to this day.

No excuses for the Herald, though.  Newspapers have copy editors to catch precisely this sort of error.

"Perseverance is a great element of success. If you knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody." -Longfellow

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by: Bean in the 'Burbs @ Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 23:55:18 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Let's remember ... (5.00 / 2)

that Ted Kennedy made the same mistake; actually, so did veteran newsman Chet Curtis when I was on NECN once. It happens. Three times in a print column is pretty frickin' egregious, though.

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Blue Mass. Group
So what politics do you deserve?

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by: Charley on the MTA @ Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 16:32:54 PM CST