Europe Union Moves Toward a Bailout of Greece

By STEPHEN CASTLE and LANDON THOMAS Jr.

.......

I put the headline and the names of the reporters for the New York Times who wrote this story in case anyone wants to ridicule them for the following passage:

Greece is pressing for a much detail as possible on rescue contingencies to ensure that it will be get some relief from the attack in the markets for imposing a harsh plan on its restive public.

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I've learned a lot about the news cycle in the mainstream media over the past year. It's really fascinating to see how one initial report can germinate into a thousand confirming reports, all of which simply restate the original report -- which is never fact checked -- in a slightly differently worded account, with maybe a new detail here or there added in for posterity. The Google machine and the era of oversupply of free information via online newspapers do make it incredibly easy to find out exactly what is happening at the ends of the earth, but it does not come without some drawbacks.

The no. 1 side effect of the dawn of this era -- one of fast, available information, which is intertwined with the emergence of what I refer to as "Generation Text Me" -- is that my pet peeve is chronic.

Where have all the good editors gone?

Greece is pressing for a much detail as possible on rescue contingencies to ensure that it will be get some relief from the attack in the markets for imposing a harsh plan on its restive public.

Hmmm...

How about we write it like this?

Greece is pressing for as much detail as possible on rescue contingencies to ensure that it will be getting some relief from the attack in the markets for imposing a harsh plan on its restive public.

The best is how the NYT clearly realized they had gotten the equivalent of a D on a ninth grade English quiz, and amended the way the story appeared online (click here and you'll see):

Aaaand they still made a mistake.



(Sigh.)