Hey, writer, you're being jusges

It's not a good sign when the subheadline of the article ("B.C. house party death trial finds woman not guilty" on CBC News online on March 2, 2012) includes a misspelling resulting in a nonword. In the article,

the judge is introduced as Sunny Stromberg-Stein, but

her last name is later written in two different ways. Click an image to enlarge it.

Jeffey Klassen; Khan; He said Friday he was not consider himself drunk.; jan. 21

The two sentences/paragraphs above (from "Police officer says he did not assault Khan" on CBC News online on October 22, 2010) is how this error-riddled article begins. First there's the misspelled Jeffrey, and then - maybe in an attempt to avoid misspelling another person's first name - victim Kahn's first name is missing. It's Firoz and its only presence is in the article's photo caption. Then,

there is this dog's breakfast of a sentence. Finally,

jan. is an abbreviation of a month, and months are always capitalized, so Jan. it ought to be.

Ellen

The writer's lips are sealed when it comes to Ellen's last name in "Ellen's lips unsealed" in today's 24H Vancouver. Mine aren't: it's Page.

P attinson; in the popular vam-

The writer of "Twilight's Pattinson kin to Vlad the Impaler" in 24H Vancouver on June 25, 2010, appears to have had great problems with text alignment. I don't know why main got its very own line with a lot of space after it, but I do know that Pattinson should have been kept together, or at least continued with a hyphen. Further on,


spacing is still an issue, with plenty of room for text after just as. Plus, the end of the screen capture above is actually the end of the article. Seriously. 24H Vancouver has outdone itself here by stopping halfway through a word and leav-

Neeson; filming the The A-Team

-- "Neeson in town" in Vancouver 24 hours on October 5, 2009

Either Liam Neeson is now just going by one name, like Madonna and Oprah, or 24 hours has failed to include his first name. I'm thinking it's the latter. Putting the in front of The A-Team is wrong. If I told you that this was in the entertainment section near the back of the paper you'd believe me, right? What if I told you that this was in the breaking news section on the paper's 3rd page? The supposed importance is probably due to the brunette being stunning. Really, 24 hours? Really?

Hank Sedni; Kesler is the second coming of Rod Brind'amour with a potenially bigger offensive upside.

-- "Spill your guts" in Vancouver 24 hours on September 23, 2009

When you're spilling your guts, it's bound to be messy. But the least you can do is attempt to minimize the mess. Here we have Hank's last name being mangled from Sedin to Sedni. Then, in just one sentence of average length, we have Kesler missing his first name (this is his first mention in the article), Brind'Amour's last name missing a capitalization, and a T missing in what's supposed to be potentially. Yuck, there was obviously no attempt at all to minimize the mess here, and that's offensive to readers.

vice-president Denton

-- "Tickets still available, but not for hockey gold" in Vancouver 24 hours on June 8, 2009

This is the lone appearance of Denton's name. I wonder Denton's first name is. Maybe Denton is the first name and it's the last name that's missing.

Bobb also extended

-- "Ghalib told to stay away (people in the news)" in Vancouver 24 hours on March 19, 2009

What about Bobb? Who is Bobb? I assume it's the judge, but does the judge go by just one name? I doubt it.

CAMPBELL; JAMES

click image to enlarge

-- "Few answers, lots of spin" in Vancouver 24 hours on March 2, 2009

Do you see the photo of Campbell? Do you see the photo of James? You'd think they would feature prominently in the article, yet there is not a single mention - in the entire article - of [British Columbia New Democratic Party Leader Carole] James. As for [British Columbia Premier Gordon] Campbell, his only mention is in the very last paragraph and omits both his position and his first name.

Ed Mahon

-- "Sense of Humor" (entertainment in brief) in Vancouver 24 Hours, Friday September 26 2008

Ed McMahon. You were clearly trying for Ed McMahon. You failed.

Martin

-- New Rules for Embedded TV ads on page 30 in 24 Hours Vancouver, Friday June 27 2008

Correction: FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin

It's the first time Martin is mentioned in the article, therefore his full name - and in this case, also his job title - should be printed. The image above captures the first three paragraphs of the article.

commentary by Reeves

There are tons of special features, including a very thorough making-of featurette which breaks down the shoot by date, Cloverfield Visual Effects and I Saw It! It's Alive! It's Huge!, J.J. Abrams' story of getting the idea during a trip to Japan. There are deleted scenes, Clover Fun (bloopers) and two slightly different endings, complete with commentary by Reeves.
-- Cloverfield (Hand-held thrills, one-eyed beauty in The Vancouver Courier, Friday May 2 2008

Correction: commentary by Matt Reeves, Cloverfield's director. Use last-name-only only after having used the full name earlier. The first mention of Reeves is with the very last word of the article.