Errors in the Marshall versus WVU stories

1. The time element  should not be used at the beginning of a story, and should include the day of the week instead of "tonight."

2. It should be included that the civic center is in Charleston.

3. It would be more fair to write "Men's basketball" instead of only "Marshall basketball."

4. "Capital classic" should be capitalized in the headline.

New York Times blog sites

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/
This blog seems to be local to New York City.  Many of its topics relate to local crime, transportation throughout the city, and neighborhood and school occurrences.

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/
This blog is about college sports.  The blogs are about games, programs and anything else to do with college sports.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/
Unlike the other blogs, this one is written entirely by Robert Mackey.  It seems to be more about international news.  He writes at least one blog every day.

Maureen Dowd

I had never read anything by Maureen Dowd before and I really enjoyed her work.  Her writing style is unique in that she adds humor to almost everything.  Some topics are just funny like the column about Sarah Palin's show but she later uses metaphors to relate Palin's hunting hobby to Republican strategy.  Dowd makes her point while being both insightful and funny.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/opinion/08dowd.html?adxnnl=1&ref=maureendowd&adxnnlx=1294794057-quogMM+C+MJ52Quc5WyhyQ

Headline Writing Bonus

1. Juvenile campers claim responsibility for forest fire

Two juvenile campers confessed to being responsible for a forest fire.  It lasted three days and was the worst fire in more than a decade in Ticonderoga County.

2. Penalty for owners of biting pets rejected

A proposed penalty of a misdemeanor sentence for owners whose pets bite was rejected.  It was suggested the leash laws were strong enough and incarcerating owners would not stop pets from biting people.

Reign of Error

I was surprised so many errors were found in such major newspapers.  It's the copy editor's responsibility to catch errors but at the same time, the reporter should be just as professional with editing.  That is what separates real journalists from everyday bloggers and citizens with no journalistic experience.

New York Times Correction Policy

Though the New York Times' privacy policy and terms of service are available online, I was not able to find the corrections policy.  However, I did find plenty of contact information for submitting corrections or asking questions.  The corrections section is found on page A2 of the actual paper.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/pageoneplus/corrections.html

Macro vs Micro

Both macro and micro editing hold importance in the process of making an accurate, newsworthy story.  With micro editing, you focus on the small details such as grammar and spelling.  With macro editing, you look at the big picture by checking facts and determining if the story is ethical.

I naturally focus on grammar and spelling first and typically have to remind myself to check the facts.  I prefer micro editing.  Which do you prefer?