Don’t sweat the small stuff. Or the big stuff

I’m not suggesting that someone brutally crack down on this reporter. I just think a little help from an editor, a proofreader, or anyone familiar with basic English would be nice. Perhaps then the reporter for “The Cutline” blog on Yahoo! News wouldn’t use though instead of through and western instead of Western:

Maybe Yahoo! just can’t afford additional editorial staff. Hey, we’ve all had to cut back. I get it. So, if there’s no help coming from the Internet giant, I have a suggestion: Don’t worry about making mistakes! Don’t sweat it! Just relax! 

Can’t decide how to spell the name of the Libyan leader? No problem! Spell it two ways and one of them is bound to be right! Can’t spell Christiane Amanpour’s name? No problem! Nobody will notice!

Just because you’re a senior media reporter for one of the world’s largest Internet companies, don’t worry if you can’t remember the name of that little rag published in New York. You don’t work for the New York Times; no one expects you to have actual knowledge of the news media:

Now, don’t you feel better?

Helena Bonham Carter is one more

Helena Bonham Carter joins more than 800 people whose names have been mangled at the keyboard of Yahoo!’s writers and editors.

Thanks to Yahoo! Movies for yet another addition to the list!

It’s not its first appearance

It’s not the first time a writer for Yahoo! Shine has confused the contraction it’s with the possessive pronoun its:

And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts it wouldn’t be the last.

Last month is still last month

Last month, and by that I mean “last month,” Taco Bell was sued over the content of its beef. I know that because I read it on the Yahoo! News blog “The Lookout”:

That blog is a rich vein of grammatical and factual goofs. But it provides milliseconds of fun, including the opportunity for you, the reader, to rearrange words so that they make sense.

The blog also give you information not reported in respected news outlets. Like the news that the folks at Taco Bell will be sending out millions and millions of ads:

I wonder how much those will cost the company.

Philip Treacy: Hat’s not right

Uh, no. That’s not how to spell milliner Philip Treacy’s name.

It’s no surprise this gaffe shows up on Yahoo! Shine.

Yeah, that’s ‘The Ticket’

Reporters for Yahoo! News love semicolons in headlines, but don’t quite understand the punctuation mark. For some reason, they feel it’s the same as a period and capitalize the word following a semi; this time the error occurs on the blog ”The Ticket”:

The niceties of punctuation continue to elude the writer when it comes to forming a possessive. Just how many nations sent governors to Washington? I thought it was just one, but the apostrophe following the letter S in nations indicates otherwise. There were at least two countries involved. Yeah, that’s “The Ticket.”

There’s only one Turkish government

If there’s only one Turkish government (and I believe that’s the case), why did the writer for Yahoo! Shine use a plural verb here?

How the Gingrinch stole Christmas

What do you call a greedy, Christmas-stealing former speaker of the House? A Gingrinch! 

This lesson from the Dr. Seuss School of Journalism comes to you courtesy of the Yahoo! front page team.

Gearing up for a decision

Over at the Yahoo! front page, the editors may be gearing up for a decision. I can hear the conversation now:

First, we’re going to make sure we have all the words we need in every headline. Then, we’re going to decide how to abbreviate the word government, so we don’t look like fools.

Maybe they should have had that conversation before publishing this:

Adding to the 800

Herman Cain’s just the latest addition to the more than 800 names that have been mangled by the professional writers and editors who work for Yahoo!.

 

This time the culprit is a reporter for the Yahoo! News‘ blog “The Ticket.”