This unsigned note was slipped into the comments folder late last night.: "Kind of have the kids over a barrel -- all of us need jobs right now. And a paycheck is better than the alternative. "
OWW's anonymous reader seems to be saying that sloppy spelling, absentee editing, failure to read, lousy make up and irrelevant art (we won't mention actual grammar lest we risk a charge of Third Reich tendencies) are reasonable standards because a paycheck is better than the alternative.
The cynicism saddens. The logic eludes.
If I were working for Sun Coast Media Group for the paycheck (hmm, who there isn't?), I'd make darn sure that I wouldn't be replaced by someone who could spell, read, edit and operate a proportion wheel. I'd make sure I knew how to select and play local-interest stories instead of pouring half a dozen 60-inch opuses off Bloomberg News wire and calling it a night.
I wouldn't send headlines that call spring holiday hats "Eastern Bonnets." I wouldn't promise that letters to the editor will be edited for grammar and spelling on the same page that routinely runs sentences along the lines of "their are to many ferrel cats in my neighborhood," or hit the send-and-print key with misspelled dateline cities. I wouldn't let six-column heds go with errors that even spell-checker can catch while the any-paycheck-is-better-than-none folks pull an ATC (air traffic controller)
And, yes, today there is more below the fold: a four-column headline that rolled off the presses, bound for 30,000 homes, news stands and schools at about the same time Anonymous was composing her best defense.
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