A plea to my many friends in the media

OK, so I’m on my high horse again. This time, it’s aimed at members of the media – journalists, sub-editors, editors and managing editors. Maybe teachers and headteachers too.

I cannot pick up a newspaper or magazine, or look on-line or on screen at media websites without there being a plethora of typos and grammatical errors. And before anyone comments, yes I have been guilty of these myself even in this age of the on-line spell check.

But the media (in any guise) should, at the very least, take special care to be accurate, not only in content but in spelling and grammar. After all, adults and children look to the media to set a good example.

Sub-editors are paid to check copy and headlines. I appreciate there have been cuts in resources in recent years, but come on! Do your jobs properly and be paragons of virtue.

Here’s a great example spotted recently:

What hope do we have for the younger generation if the BBC (not guilty in the case above, by the way, but certainly on its websites and on some of the sub-titling on its websites) and its many media colleagues can’t get things right – or simply can’t be bothered?

Young journalists these days come straight out of schools and colleges where spelling and grammar seem to be old-fashioned and unnecessary; but I still feel we should hang on to some semblance of standards in a world where text-speak is in danger of taking over and some of the most peculiar street words are finding themselves in new versions of dictionaries.

So my plea today is for editors and advocates to get to grips with this phenomenon for lack of education, laziness and inaccuracy before standards drop any further.

Is it really important? To me, yes it is.

If you agree, do let me know.