Tuesday, October 21, 2014

It's time for pedantry corner

1972 Labor campaign poster
Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam died today, aged 98. Both loved and loathed by many, he was a polarizing figure, but without question he was one of the most significant Australian political leaders of recent times.

In a game of journalistic one upmanship, rival news outlets rushed to be first with the news of his passing. This backfired for The Age, whose report this morning carried a quote from Federal Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shroten. Bill Shorten would be bewildered to see that his surname has changed. By this afternoon the error was corrected.

Google the Omniscient says that there are people with the surname Shroten in the world, but the White Pages says that none of them are living in Australia. 

This is another textbook example of what happens when you don't pay attention to detail. Times are difficult at Fairfax Media, with significant restructuring of the company in recent years, but surely they still have adequate resources to proof read and edit their content before publication. 

1 comment:

Scottyboy said...

Spell checkers aren't fool proof.