Wow! How that one ever got past the watchful eye of a desk editor (or in today's world, a spell checker) is a mystery. From the byline it appears that the story was written by a "stringer" at a local small town paper whose story got picked up by
USA Today. The headline with the misspelling likely was
not the mistake of the story writer or
USA Today but rather the page editor in the 'slot' for the local rag
Wooster Daily Record.
In the old days, at national and large market newspapers, the journalists would submit their stories to the editors desk (several editors sitting around the periphery of a curved table) who would proofread the story for grammar and spelling and then hand it to another more senior editor sitting on the inside of the curved table (i.e., the 'slot' man) who would double check their work, write a headline that would fit into the allowable column space and send it to the typesetter. The lowly typesetter was the last link in the chain and would be severely chastised if he ever questioned what the slot man sent him, unless, of course, he saved everyone from an embarrassing mistake.
Some mistakes are humorous like this one, though some could be embarrassing, slanderous or libelous and ruin the paper's reputation as well as bottom line. Sadly those days are long gone. Word processors and photo/electronic typesetting have taken much of the excitement and romance out of the newsroom. Television 'news' and video tape have supplanted the art and craft of photojournalism. In another time and another place in my life I did some time in the barrel writing, editing and taking pictures for small daily newspapers. It's a bygone era.
nypost.com
inews.co.uk
metro.co.uk
www.indiatimes.com
www.mirror.co.uk
www.irishnews.com
www.thescottishsun.co.uk
www.hulldailymail.co.uk
