BBC News online, June 21, 2023
There seems to be a firm conviction these days that ‘after’ means the same as ‘when’, but ‘after’ means it happened later. This heading implies that the car hit the pedestrians and that subsequently someone came along and hurt the child.
Times, June 13, 2023
A sweet innocent wrote this heading (on an article by a man) but there should be an adult on the Times who would have realised this would cause snorting at breakfast tables all over the country. Subs have got to have dirty minds.
A young farmer had a ewe-ge surprise when her sheep gave birth to six healthy lambs in a “very rare” event.
BBC News Online, March 18, 2023
I cannot believe that the BBC, allegedly staffed by adults, thought that this effort was acceptable. Pathetic doesn’t begin to describe it.
BBC News online, March 1, 2023
Is there anyone left who understands the difference between ‘when’ (ie at the same time) and ‘after’ (ie later)? This heading means that two trains collided and dozens were killed at some later time. It’s nonsense.
i newspaper, February 27, 2023
This is a classic example of the lack of curiosity I am always moaning about. How can you possibly send this through without saying how many wins he already has? You might as well not use the story. For the record he has 723 wins so needs another 77. Incidentally it looks to me as it this is an agency story as the identical wording appears in the Mail. The ‘i’ sub has cut it above the paragraph about the number of wins he already has. This is lazy and incompetent.
“I find all Mr Kirwan did outside the supermarket, when the defendants were by the trollies, was to admonish them for their trouble-making and anti-social behaviour in the lavatories.” Mr Justice Fraser said.
BBC News online, February 16, 2023
This is a common error – the plural of words ending in ‘ey’ is ‘eys’, not ‘ies’. Thus trolleys, flunkeys, lackeys, donkeys etc. Also storeys for a building in Britain, but in the US it is spelled ‘story’ so there the plural would be ‘stories’.
Note the careless punctuation error in the BBC piece, a full point at the end of the quote instead of a comma. Sigh.
The Times, January 15, 2023
This is by Martin Samuel, a highly paid sports writer who in this autobiographical piece repeatedly refers to his ‘bent’ for English. One would therefore think he would know how to spell the name of Philip Larkin, possibly the best known British poet of the 20th century. If he doesn’t, the sub certainly should. This is ignorance of a high level.
Actually, if you a connoisseur of journalists who think they can write, this is a good example of the genre. Pure gibberish. You can see it here.
Times, December 13, 2022
In my day every child over six knew that Pompeii was devastated by Vesuvius, but I imagine the sub in this case thought Etna was near enough.
Times, December 13, 2022
Spot the difference between the heading, the intro and the caption. That’s right, there isn’t any. This is pathetically poor practice. The heading could have been
Hoaxer Lewis-Smith dies
The caption could have been
Lewis-Smith: Targeted Princess Diana
Sunday Times, December 4, 2022
Just to be clear, this is the Sunday Times, which proudly proclaims at the top of the front page that it is ‘Sunday newpaper of the year’ (according to whom? Readers of the Dandy?) I don’t know where to begin with this shocker. ‘Pray’ is a verb without a noun form, so it can’t go with a possessive noun. It is like saying ‘Lion’s die’. Is it meant to be a pun on ‘prey’? If so, it doesn’t work. I really have no idea what went on in the ‘brain’ of the person who wrote this piece of gibberish, or those who passed it, but no doubt they said ‘Yes, that’s great! Well done!’ You could have got away with ‘Lion’s prayer’ or ‘Lions’ prayer’ if you were determined to go with the line, but I would have made it something like ‘Let us prey . . . on Senegal’. Heaven knows there’s enough room.