Perils of Print II: BCCT Revisited

Nothing disarms a complainer quicker than agreeing with him. Misplaced defensiveness, the more common response, just proves the complainer's point that you really aren't paying attention to the customer. You have to be sincere though; we can tell when it's just a ploy just to shut somebody up.

I sent a version of my post of July 26 to the local editor of the Bucks County Courier Times. He responded:

"Thanks for the observations. It proves that readers notice these kinds of goofs. I will take the issue up with each individual reporter and their supervising editors. Hard to understand such sloppiness when we require 2 reads by assigning editors for every story, then as a failsafe we require our night copy editing desk to read every story a third time. Hope you see improvements soon. Best wishes, Carl"

His note was followed by another editor's asking what I meant by the misuse of "alleged." I referred her to items on the Columbia Journalism Review site and the Poynter Institute. Yesterday's paper had a crime story in which every statement was properly attributed but without the use of "alleged."

So I hereby take back what I said about papers not having the will to make a better product. They still might not have the means, but people like Carl are doing what they can.