Decline in Local Professional Journalism

I read an article printed in our local paper this morning that just made me livid. It wasn't the subject, at least not entirely, but the horrid journalism that was represented. The article was online, because I will NOT pay to receive our paper, it's a waste of my money. The title had a misspelling, the TITLE. If this were the first article I have read that had such a lack of professionalism I would not be complaining, however this is becoming the norm. I do not mean to pick on the author of this article alone, so I won't link to it. He is not the only one responsible, or the first to write just for the sake of filling space, for this paper. They do employ editors, my husband emailed them with a list of 11 glaringly obvious errors.

The article was to cover a Village board meeting, where the main topic was apparently the reconstruction of our Village Barns. The original structure burned in November of 2006, and it has been a long drawn out and painful process to even get the new building construction under way. The author of this article misquoted several facts. The most prominent being that the fire occurred in 2007. If this were true and the barns were at the stage they currently are I don't think anyone would be complaining. The fact is that the brand new equipment that was purchased to replace what was lost has been sitting outside since it's arrival shortly after the fire. For much longer than the article states.

The author misspelled a Trustee's name and to add to the disrespect could only have picked the most unintelligent thing he said to quote. He also added in extra facts that are indeed not facts, he printed a company name as ENM instead of E & M, there are multiple grammatical errors as well. It was clear from reading the article as it was printed that the author did no research. He must not have even driven by the construction site, because the stage of construction was misrepresented. Although maybe he couldn't find the street in Google maps because he didn't have the street name correct either.

This newspaper goes in bulk to our school. The kids are to use it to learn from. What is this level of journalism teaching them? That it's OK to do your job half way, maybe that research isn't all that important, that pride in your work is really not required once you enter the real world, or even perhaps spell check isn't "all that."

I think what really gets me the most is that I question my ability as a writer almost daily. I wasn't great in English class, didn't "do" journalism. As I do now, most of what I wrote about in school was based on my own experience. It makes it hard to write with authority when you have NO CLUE what you are doing! So to have this man come into my little town and completely hack the article, facts & people, oh it is just ticks me off.

And as a final note, I apologize if I have made any grammatical errors, my grammar check didn't spot any, and neither did my editor (hubby). I do not believe there are any spelling errors, I've spell checked 3 times & read it OUT LOUD 3 times, just like I was taught in the 4th grade. No one is perfect after all!