My mom hates mistakes....

When an average newspaper reader finds a mistake in print, it's quite often that they'll blame the writer of the article. And, yes, the writer is definitely at fault, but let's not forget about the editor. They are paid to spot these errors and should be at fault as well.

Take for example my mother.....

It was an article in the Winnipeg Free Press last March (can't remember the writer, but it was one of the WFP young guns), which was talking about the Tim Horton's Brier, Canada's Curling Championship. My mom, being a passionate curling fan, takes it pretty seriously. So when this article featured a couple of glaring mistakes, including wrong team information and wrong player names, she didn't waste no time in making a big stink.

Now these mistakes were indeed huge, but my mom acted like it was the end of the world and lambasted the writer of this article demanding that he be tarred and feathered. Well, she didn't go that far but she definitely wasn't pleased. But no mention of the editor. Let's remember something, Mom....all writers do make mistakes from time to time, but when they do, it is part of the editor's job to fix them up. As I mentioned, these were terrible errors, and it's hard to believe that the editors missed them.

And now everytime my mom sees an article by one of those young guys, she completely doubts everything they say because of the miscues made in the curling article.

So this just goes to show that the editor's job is that much harder. When an average newspaper reader like my Mom sees a mistake, she instantly blames the writer, when in fact, the editor has as much to do with letting this mistake out as the writer. But the name on the story gets the blame.

Essentially, the reputation of the writer can fall into the hands of the editor. And when the editor spots a mistake and saves the writer's ass, nobody outside of the newsroom will ever know.

What a job.