Categories
arts journalism/criticism

you had one job

Are either of these names correct? [click to enlarge]
Violinist Tessa Lark

The violinist in question referred to (in this screen grab from the Rochester City Newspaper) is actually named Tessa Lark. I know this because I went to her own website to find out. It’s a small thing, but to me it looms large. Details matter. When reporting, getting the facts straight is Job One. Most likely a copy editor or captioner (if those jobs still exist) was in a hurry and mistyped the name – twice.

I’m hardly perfect. I make errors and typos all the time. I try to catch as many as I can before hitting the ‘Publish’ button, and I correct those that I’ve missed as soon as they’re brought to my attention. The more I read online content, the more I find these sorts of errors. They add up, and they undermine the integrity of the rest of the content. I wish we could all try just a bit harder.