Opinion: Saints Champions; Mainstream Media Still Sucks

Just saw that the Times-Pic published it's latest in their series of "New Orleans Saints Q&A" articles, this time with offensive lineman Jermey Parnell as their subject.

The problem? They apparently don't even know his name. It's Jermey, not Jeremy, though the two names are incredibly similar and the latter is significantly more common than the former so it's easy to see how such a mistake could be made. For confirmation, please see his player pages on the team and league official websites.

While I hate to be a whistle-blowing nitpicker (I'm doing it anyway), it really irks me that a professional media publication such as the Times-Pic could get such an important detail - the mans name for crying out loud - incorrect. Especially when one of their own, Jeff Duncan, once informed us so arrogantly (his words, not mine) of the newspapers rock solid editing techniques as reason why professionals newspapers and their reporters will always be better than bloggers...  

The Times-Picayune employs trained reporters and editors who report, study and research their beats on a daily basis. They adhere to written standards and policies. Before publication every story is edited for grammatical and factual errors, usually by more than one set of eyes. In general, blogs are produced by fans, and therefore their objectivity is inherently flawed. That might sound harsh, arrogant or defensive, but that's honestly how I feel.    

If it had been a one-time error, I'd have let it slide. But based on the fact that Jermey's name is spelled incorrectly every single time throughout the article, I'm assuming it's not just a simple grammatical mistake, rather a complete lack of knowledge on the part of the Times-Pic.

Am I immune to misspellings and grammatical errors? No. There are probably more than a few in this very post. I'm not perfect by any means. But this is just my hobby, not career. Believe it or not, I don't expect the Times-Pic to be perfect either. But don't look down on blogs, bloggers, their craft or the entire new media movement with disdain - probably mixed with a little fear - when you are just as vulnerable. Is it really asking too much for the people who make a living covering the Saints and have access to the team to simply get a players name correct anyway?  

Jermey, if you're reading this: We promise not to get your name wrong if you're willing to sit down and answer some questions for us here at Canal Street Chronicles. We're just fans. But we actually give a s***.