Consult an expert

Yeah, climbing is a niche sport. But there are plenty of experts who can keep errors like this from happening.

Emily Harrington Did Something Amazing. Then the Press Blew It.

 

Based on what we know, you're surprised so many got it wrong? I'd bet somewhere there was a discussion about Capitan needing to be changed to Captain.

 

Yeah, that's a factual miss.

Also, it feels like the extreme climbing industry keeps coming up with new routes to stay in the news and make good on their sponsors' financial support. I mean, it's an understandable mistake, in a sense. How many routes do you want the news media to keep track of?

 

I still can't decided between RBI and RBIs.

One thing at a time.

 

I've actually found a really effective way to avoid this kind of mistake: don't cover esoteric bullshit like "Emily Harrington is the first woman to free-climb Golden Gate in a day."

Anybody who cares, knows.

 

I’m sure it builds on itself, right? This is more noteworthy because of Free Solo and The Dawn Wall.

In a few more years this is back to not making the cut for AP.

 

That smacks of the famous "you don't know anything about (insert sports here) because you never played the game."

The role of any media professional is as a translator. We're there to explain complex issues or topics in a way that informs and enlightens people who don't know anything or little about the subject.

Hopefully, we sift through the information and turn jargon into actual English words. I don't have to have chalk dust and carabiners in my pants pockets to write about rock climbing. But I do need to ask the right questions if I'm trying to describe the context of an historical event and use the correct terminology.

The ball got dropped somewhere along the way, and of course, today's technology (and reliance on content aggregation) just compounds the misteak.

If you do your homework and ask the right people, you can write or speak intelligently about nearly any topic. I took Basic Auto Shop in high school, but all I needed to do was to ask very specific questions of Doug Yates to help explain exactly why fuel injection was a big deal for NASCAR.

I didn't have to tear down the carburetor myself. (Although when I did in 1975, I somehow ended up with a couple of springs and two small screws left over.)

 

Keep firing copy editors.
Keep consolidating desks.
Keep ignoring institutional knowledge.
Keep thinking that it's all about the bottom line and running as lean as humanly possible ... then go leaner than that.

This happens. Along with far too many other avoidable errors.

 

Keep ignoring institutional knowledge.

I always love this one, when the entity sheds experienced staffers. Then it has the inevitable dropoff in stories, or solid depth in what stories it does get.

 

Your last sentence is going to be my journalism epitaph. I say that all the time and subscribe to it closely.

 

Awesome take!