Newspaper Writers Know

Writers for major newspapers are as aware as anyone of the absence of sufficient numbers of (or sufficiently talented) copy editors.

Here's an item from Al Kamen's "In the Loop" column in The Washington Post, published on August 6:

This deplorable error in an Associated Press wire dispatch Monday is surely the result of the demise of copy editors in the news business. The wire carried news of conservative political commentator Robert D. Novak -- who, by the way, was always gracious and helpful to us, despite his cranky public persona -- and his retirement from the biz after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

And then a terrible gaffe: "Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He announced late last month he has a brain."