Getting Raw

I like the RawStory website, and as readers here have likely noticed, quote from it often.  Though I do have a lot of quibbles with it.  One is that they often promote something big in their headlines, and it turns out to be very minor in the article, or even on occasion, non-existent.  The other is that they have terrible proofreading for a news publication and are filled with mistakes – usually typos, but not limited to that.  To their credit, they have a link about corrections, and I use it a lot, and they’re very fast about fixing things.  But they have so many mistakes, I’ve largely given up correcting most things.

(By the way, I know I have typos here, myself.  But I write this for free, don't always have the patience to then spend more time proofreading, I'm not a professional news website, and don't have a paid proofreader.)

Anyway, RawStory had one yesterday (which turned into two..) that I couldn’t ignore.

In an article about the Manhattan D.A. case, they wrote about Ari Melber describing something as being "as close to 'you can't handle the truth' as you can come," and explaining that he was quoting a line from a John Grisham courtroom novel.  Ack.  So, I wrote and gave them the correct attribution, that the line is from the stage play and subsequent movie A Few Good Men, written by Aaron Sorkin.  And as always, they sent a thank you and fixed it immediately.  Except – they referred to it as being “the infamous scene.”

I had to write back that the scene was the most “famous” scene from the movie, not infamous.  To their credit, they fixed it within minutes…

(Though they'd mentioned John Grisham in their original version, they left out noting that the quote is actually by Aaron Sorkin, and I like to give writers credit, most especially for movies, since far too many people seem to think the actors make it all up, or the directors do everything.  But I'm just glad they got it right, and so I counted my victories, and didn't write back...)

I’ve thought about putting in a voucher to them as a freelance proofreader.