Today is the first day of publication for the new Star-Advertiser, the only daily newspaper in Honolulu, created when the Advertiser merged into the Star-Bulletin.
Although it’s sad to see my usual morning newspaper replaced, and to know that among the hundreds of Advertiser and Star-Bulletin employees who lost their jobs are many whom I have known throughout my public relations career, it’s refreshing to realize that time indeed does march on, and that the only thing that doesn’t change is change itself.
Now … to reality. I hope it’s not a prelude of things to come, but … there is an egregious grammatical error on Page 3.
Normally, these things slip by, lost in the cacophony of words that crowd the news pages. Unfortunately, this one is up front and in your face, where everybody can see it.
I quote Dennis Francis, Honolulu Star-Advertiser publisher, in his full-page “Aloha” welcoming letter to the newspaper that I will likely be reading with my morning coffee: See it? Even my computer Word program flagged it.
“Our staff of nearly 500 employees have worked hard to bring you the paper you have in your hands.”
“Staff” is a singular noun that requires a singular verb. “Have” is a plural verb. The correct usage should have been “Our staff of nearly 500 employees HAS worked hard …”
Frankly, that’s where I stopped reading his message. Too bad, I’m sure he was sincere and had a lot of good things to say. Unfortunately, he’s lost credibility with me. After all, he DOES run a newspaper and is obligated to re-read and proof everything he writes. So for now, I’ll skip his words. Maybe later.
That being said, I’m happy with the Star-Advertiser. They’re running my favorite comic strip, “Pickles.”
Things such as that error can sometimes jump right off the page at you. When in doubt (and no spell check available) perhaps he should try to "diagram" the sentence. Do you remember that class from school? I loved it, don't recall much about it, but . . .it worked.
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