Tuesday 27 October 2009

ST's Typos Get Grander

I just came back after a week in Phuket to an interesting email from a buddy showing an abysmal error right in the top-middle of Saturday's front page. Unlike previous errors which occurred primarily within the article text, this was in a prominent highlight strip referring to an article inside the paper for that day.

spotted by Mr Lim Wei Teck

Where other mistakes seem to have been a result of logical oversight, this appears to be due to blatant laziness (of writer, editor, intern and even the printing staff) in checking the material.

Perhaps this is the reason (i.e. allowing gross mistakes to run in the paper) why the ST was ranked higher this year (133 from 144 last year) in the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders?

Well, in any case this speculation is more plausible than Zaqy Mohamad's suggestion that it is "because of the media diversity here, with mainstream media going online (that) creates pressure for media agencies to provide better-quality work." By the way, the index measures the level of press freedom only and not the actual quality of press.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

ST sucks. I've stopped buying and reading it for the last five years already. The Internet provides cheaper, better and faster news that local govt-controlled newspapers. Don't waste your money buying it. Don't waste your time even reading it, even if it is freely distributed like TODAY. They are all brain-washing propagandas and long-term psychological warfare tools against own citizens, during peace time.

The battle of hearts and mind is a battle of psychological warfare.

Anonymous said...

finally someone else agrees with me

Anonymous said...

The paper quality is pretty good according to my dogs.