I was perusing the offerings on The Huffington Post today and came across two articles, “Rupert Everett: Hollywood is Like Al-Qaeda” and “Critics of Obama’s Exit Strategy Have Argument Backwards,” both with different spellings of “al Qaeda”. I have no first-hand knowledge of Arabic so I cannot say with assurance how to spell it, but after some online research I came across WikiAnswers which claims the correct spelling is “Al Qaeda”. Any Arabic speakers who can second that?
In the first article it was spelled “Al-Qaeda”. In the second article there were two different spellings, “al Qaeda” and “al-Qaeda”. I think most Americans don’t know which spelling is correct (if one of them is correct), but for the sake of consistency, THP should choose one and use it wherever the word occurs.
Lou Dobbs has always been a very interesting political figure and not least of all because of current events: he quit CNN. In this article off the front page of The Huffington Post, John Stewart and Dobbs talk about why he left CNN, his political views, and health care. Understandably, they did not discuss typos in the news!
THP quoted Stewart as saying:
This idea that somehow getting a health care plan through takes us back to the days pre-revolution is bunk.
Stewart probably didn’t say that exactly. As a copywriter, this is what I would have written:
This idea that somehow getting a health care plan through takes us back to the pre-revolution days is bunk.
Enjoy the articles and the videos.
I appreciate The Huffington Post for its political focuses, but I often come across errors in their articles. On one hand I forgive them, and on the other hand I think they should be embarrassed for their shortcomings. In one of their headlining articles this morning, “Are Moderates No Longer Welcome In The Republican Party,” I found two instances in particular that I thought could use the expertise of a professional copywriter.
1) The GOP leadership insisted on Sunday political TV talk shows the party is strong and inclusive while Democrats described a Republican party out of touch with the people.
I found this sentence to be slightly awkward and would have reworded it like this:
On Sunday, the GOP leadership appeared on political TV talk shows and insisted the party was strong and inclusive. Democrats described the Republican party as being out of touch with the people.
2) A Republican loss in the 23rdwould leave the party with just two seats in the 29-member state congressional delegation.
A simple space between “23rd” and “would” would make this article that much better.
