Herald typo brings laughs, gripes |
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| September 3, 2011 | ||
It was a typo of only a single letter, but it was a good one. Instead of the Bonners Ferry BaDgers, the article referred to the Bonners Ferry BaNgers, which most might think a bit of a stretch as those two letters aren't close to one another on a QWERTY keyboard. Problem is, Julie couldn't use her usual keyboard, as Frontier internet had been down for more than 20 hours, right at deadline crunch time, due to an equipment failure that took many customers off-line from Coeur d'Alene to the Canadian border. Recovery was sporadic, and, unfortunately, the Herald was one of those places restored last. Typically, Herald articles are composed in Bonners Ferry and, through the Hagadone news network, the articles are laid out in Sandpoint, and the paper published in Coeur d'Alene. With the Herald off-line and the drop-dead deadline looming, Julie resorted to an extreme measure, re-typing those articles that needed to be in that Thursday's edition on her Blackberry, then sending them to the Daily Bee office in Sandpoint via cell phone. As most know, it's a little bit harder to type on a tiny cell phone keyboard. Many Herald readers are also unaware that Julie had been out of the office for several days to attend services for her father-in-law, Mel Golder, who passed away in August 17, and not so long after she lost her own father, Bill Masterson, who died November 11. The unintended typo was apparently met with severe chagrin by at least one reader, as it prompted Julie to write on her Facebook page, "To the person who needed to complain about a mistake I made in today's paper, your complaint was not invalid, it just didn't warrant the rudeness or require the unbecoming anger. I pray this person can find happiness and I also pray this person never has anything worse to complain about in their lifetime than a typo." People do take their news seriously, and what reporters and editors do for a living is a serious business, as it relies on trust. Reporters and editors take that trust extremely seriously, but despite best efforts, mistakes do creep in. Perhaps the classic that every photo journalist learns is the front page photo of a major daily showing a new sign going up over Toppenish, Washington, many years ago, inadvertently cropped so that only the fourth through the seventh letters appeared. While not so famous, another "good" one appeared on this site when the "i" was inadvertently omitted from the word "recital," giving the whole story unintended meaning. Fortunately, these pages can be corrected ... once a newspaper is printed, the mistake lives on forever. Print journalists also face the relentless pressure of deadline; something news has no respect for as it happens when it does. There's both "deadline," when editors want everything so that they can comfortably proof and have ready, and "drop dead" deadline, the last moment a reporter can squeeze something in. "Stop the presses!" is a cry heard only in movies. Good journalists, especially those dedicated to small towns, also take seriously the obligation to get out the news of greatest importance to their readers, and, as Julie did last week, they go to great lengths to get stories of importance "put to bed" so readers have the information they need to keep abreast of what's going on in the community. Reporters take pride in sniffing out those stories and presenting them to their audience in the most timely fashion possible through the strictures of their particular media ... or getting "the scoop." But news is news, and sometimes reporters can't be there ... and actually work together to help ensure that news gets out. The scoop is fun, the news is important. You'll see a few stories in the Herald lately that were published here first ... Julie knew she wouldn't be here to report and asked if there were any objections to her using them ... there were, and are, none. To journalists who care about their community and the people who read, hear or see what they produce, it's the story of importance that matters most, and getting that story out to the readers and viewers who need it that is of the highest importance. If there's a Bonners Ferry Banger, though, I have to think it must refer to the smokies served up at games by the Badger Boosters ... they're so spicy good, they'll bring tears to your eyes! |
