Nine missing in US helicopter crash, headlines The Daily Telegraph, one of the many newspapers to carry the report of the tragic collision between a C-130 and a USMC helicopter over the sea off San Diego.

View full article here

I blame the high literacy rate. As the literacy rate increases news can be sold to more, less intelligent people. With the knowledge you have less than discerning readers standards can be compromised to an optimum level of profit versus credibility.

So maybe it's no surprise we often find the most interesting and accurate news coming from third world media - even when its about our own country. They can't drive so low. A study should be done to see if third world media is more accurate and literate.

As I have said before, my solution would be to limit newspapers to 30 pages. This would force them to focus on niche markets rather than drive toward popular tripe.

My sorrow for all those involved in the tragedy goes without saying...shit truly does happen.

You have, however, further removed the lid from a can of uneducated (naturally) & ignorant (self-inflicted) worms among which journos are the most repulsive. That should be a paradox but it is not.
We haven't had a half-decent education system for generations so it should come as no surprize to read a newspaper which reads as if it were put together by a group of backward chimps.
One can almost forgive 'typos'...they can be corrected if one takes the trouble to read what one wrote.
We are all, to an extent, guilty...each one of us blogging or commenting uses a computer...and there is (not 'are') a lot of spell-checkers available...but do we take the trouble to use them? Not often enough it seems...how few of us use the preview facility on this blog?
Then there's blatant sloppiness & ignorance...the inability to distinguish between 'its' & 'it's'...'there' & their'...'there's' & 'their's...the list is very long.
Then there's the 'Spaniard in the works' syndrome among which is my all-time & hilarious favourite 'towing the line' , often seen in even these magisterial pages.
I am always tempted to ask what's on the bloody end of it.
I shall now preview this for errors, correct, submit, check again &, if necessary, edit & resubmit...and pray I haven't made a complete fool of myself.

Well Perm - sort of - but you're in America aren't you?

We forgive you if you've spent enough years there - say ... ten?

They tend to use z where we would put an s don't they?

I left school at age 15 years with no qualifications whatsoever.

I've earned some since, but the nearest I've ever been to a qualification in Enlish Language was doing all the course work for a Chinese woman who was doing G.C.S.E. English. She got a grade A.

BUGGER!

I get irritated by baited breath.

The odd thing to me is that understanding military technology & individual countries' military line-ups can be such an eye-opener as to what their intentions & capacities are - both internationally & internally. A country that mouths off, but has no genuine capacity, is a paper tiger. A country that has a huge amount of equipment that is better suited to internal control than external action is likely to be either suppressing its own people now or is prepared to do so if need be. All good Sherlock Holmes-like clues that any worthwhile journo should be able to pick up. But as so few reporters are worthwhile, so few of them pick up any of these clues.

Watchet

I have often said that the equipment an army fields is a window into its mind ... you are absolutely right - if you know your kit, you can tell a great deal about intentions.

Hi Morgan:
Last time I checked my personal info. to the right of my text I was either in Germany or Portugal...looking out of the window I can tell you that, at the moment, it's Portugal.
When I typed 'surprize' I was curious if a fellow pedant would pick it up...I am really not much concerned if Brit or US English is correctly used but would be smiffed to see 'serprize' of course...I haven't yet got(ten) round to honor or color but deem US English as acceptable as Brit.
You have found out, I see, that Chinese radies are crever.
Yes, 'baited breath' is truly 'beyond the pail'