News Munchies

Get Your Assets in Gear

Originally Posted Monday, 20 August 2018 at 06:11 PM
Updated Friday, 24 August 2018 at 05:06 PM

Headline: "Newspaper apologizes for political ad typo. It was supposed to say ‘assets,’ Missouri paper says."

This appeared in a political ad in The Laclede County Record. Those one-word typos will kill you, won't they?

You can see the entire brief article here.

Oh, we could come up with dozens of these things, but here are our two favorites:

Unfortunate 'hand job' headline in Pratt KS Tribune. Last fall, a headline writer for The Pratt (KS) Tribune handed us [yes, we said that on purpose] a wonderfully embarrassing reminder of the importance of actually reading -- and copyediting -- what you write.

A piece about Disability Mentoring Day at Pratt High School ran with the headline, "Students get first hand job experience."

To begin with, we're not sure how the writer knew it was their first experience.

Reporter: "Hey, boss: Is it 'first hand, or firsthand, or first-hand?'"

"Oh, any of them are fine; your choice."

No, as we have covered elsewhere on CornerBarPR.com^®, there are proper ways to use hyphens. Care here would have saved the paper quite a bit of infamy, but would have deprived us of seriously snarky entertainment.

Then, several years ago, in a piece about computers, an in-house newsletter for Yellow Freight once published the worst possible misspelling of "floppy disks." (No, it wasn't "floppy discs" ...)

Well, maybe they knew something.

At any rate, that was the last time the secretarial staff published the Friday News.

For more wonderfully screwed-up headlines, order a copy of "Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge." And send us your favorites.

About The Author

Richard B. Barger, ABC, APR

Richard B. Barger, ABC, APR, is well-positioned as CornerBarPR's Chief Curmudgeon; he's our version of Andy Rooney -- loves words, particularly loves to complain about idiocy.

In his spare time, Rich runs the inventively named Barger Consulting, where he conducts strategic communications planning and research, and gives people advice whether they want it or not.

Through the years, Rich has tricked unsuspecting folks into giving him positions as managing editor of the public relations division of a 180-person agency, and as a wire service editor, an economic analyst, a federal investigator, and, bless his little muddy boots, a farmer. Really. He fancies himself a pretty fair country editor and at one time was famous among about half a dozen people as "The Voice of IABC."

At various points in what passes for a career, he's done time as a member of IABC, PRSA, and NSPRA, as well as the Gifted Association of Missouri, the University of Missouri Alumni Association, the Council of Better Business Bureaus (as a Senior Arbitrator), and a handful of church choirs.

Known as "Boom-Boom Barger" in Marching Mizzou, Rich refuses to answer the phone during University of Missouri football or basketball games, plays a hard-edged game of bridge, and is married to a woman he doesn't like to talk about much, because she's smarter and much nicer than he is.

Barger's motto: "Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once."