Misspelling Blagojevich Week: Day 2

Yesterday a Blagojevich bungling from a well-known newspaper was pointed out; today we have a bungling from a lesser-known paper. Takeaway: this mistake doesn't discriminate. It's made by big and small. Also, in both cases, they are mistakes that never should've been made by pro journalists.


Today's mistake is courtesy of North Denver News, a community newspaper with, according to an "editor's note" on its Web site, about 35,000 readers. The misspelling occurs both in the headline and the first line of the body of an article dated January 4, 2009 on the North Denver News Web site, as you can see highlighted in the screen shot above. In the second line of the article, Blagojevich is spelled correctly, which means this is likely an example of sloppy writing and bad proofreading. Granted, this paper is one step above a student newspaper, but with just one issue to publish a month, there's no excuse for a lapse like this to occur online. Not even the the thin air of the Mile-high City.

But, as the old saying goes, excuses are like asses; everybody's got one. In an e-mail message, the editor of North Denver News states the mistake's origin is not at North Denver News, but V.O.A., the wire service that fed North Denver News the story. According to the editor, North Denver News staff can't correct the blunder; only V.O.A. can. However, North Denver News, upon noticing the error, could have a) notified V.O.A. of the error or, b) not run the faulty story on its Web site. However, neither happened and an inaccurate news item remained published on the North Denver News Web site for at least six days.