We still need editors

Perhaps we have been lulled into thinking that our writing is OK because we have spell-check on our word-processing programs. Or perhaps we just think that we make no mistakes. But we do make mistakes, and some are just awful.

Here’s a paragraph from a story posted on the WJLA website, today, about Virginia’s smoking ban:

For the first time, patrons will walk through the doors without smelling smoke for the first time in15 years at Ireland’s Four Courts in Arlington. Friday morning, work started before dawn.

How many mistakes can one short paragraph have? Apparently, WJLA does not believe in copyediting or editing of any sort. I have seen more mistakes on this one website than on any other major news website I visit. You know what it does? It makes me think that they don’t check ANY aspect of the stories they post. How can you trust what they say if they can’t even say it right?