The Grauniad is clearly scraping the barrel here. To borrow the BBC's motto, I'm afraid this article neither informed, educated nor entertained me. Mr Chiles should probably stick to football - and I shall stick to The Times.
Sadly, the Graun isn't alone in the MSM for poor journalism in this regard nowadays. The Telegraph often sinks just as low (why I'm no longer a paid subscriber). HJ is still there, but there's a lot more dross from his colleagues than used to be the case.
I can't speak for the Times, being out of my current price range by some margin. Maybe you DO get what you pay for!
My daughter used to be a proof-reader for the local paper: it was taken over years ago by Trinity Mirror and she, along with the other proof-readers was made redundant, reporters and advertisers then being made responsible for checking their own input.
I think this practice is almost universal now, newspapers and magazines often contain spelling errors and badly phrased headings.
Sadly that practice of 'checking your own work' (if at all) has spread to other industries, such as engineering, at least my branch (building services). Very few firms bother to check work. A sign o' the times, I'm afraid to say.
Many people (the addicted to txting type) don't like detail and won't read (and will admonish you for putting it up in that way) anything unless it's very short. Unfortunately a lack of detail often leads to mistakes and errors in taking the meaning of something, as often happens these days in the world of journalism.
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