The danger of criticising media on issues of spelling and punctuation is that it is very easy to make these mistakes oneself. And yet sometimes journalistic mistakes demonstrate an unfortunate lack of knowledge that just seems inappropriate for journalists, let alone the Chief of staff of the New Zealand Herald.
Take this article on the investigation into historic sexual abuse at Dilworth school. Not once, but twice in this piece we have one of the alleged perpetrators being described as a past victor of St Luke’s Anglican Church in Manurewa. The word I think she was looking for is vicar!
Is this an indication of the appalling ignorance of Christian faith that has become mainstream? And if our journalists are so ignorant, how can we trust them to understand the issues and report in a fair and balanced way? Maybe I have this wrong, but I would have thought that journalists should be some of the more well rounded and knowledgeable citizens. Furthermore, to be that kind of citizen in New Zealand should mean at the very least, a cursory understanding of the Christian faith and its place in New Zealand.
It should go without saying that I am not here defending (or maintaining the guilt of) the men before the courts. I am merely making a comment on journalistic ignorance.
UPDATE: By 7:00pm, the NZ Herald article had been updated and corrected. No mention of the mistake of course.