Journalism website makes historic error
I do like the Editors Weblog. It keeps me informed about things I want to keep informed about. But, really… I’ve previously raged about its sloppy use of words. (And noted its lack of an apostrophe in its name.) And today it makes another hugely infuriating error: it has created the headline “News International to leave historical Wapping site”.
Aargh! No it isn’t.
Whatever is happening down at News International, Wapping is not a “historical” site. It is not a site “belonging to or typical of the study of history” (Collins). It is unrelated to the pursuit of that particular subject. As FT.com correctly points out, the name of Wapping is one “that represents a whole chapter of British industrial history”. It is a historic site, because it is “famous or likely to become famous in history” (Collins, again).
I know people make language errors (and no doubt some smart-alek will point out several in this post). But a blog that targets itself at the world of journalism really ought to use words correctly.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have to stomp around for a while.
