In the 'Throws' of a Disappointing Basketball Anecdote

 

There are some headlines you really want to believe, like the one I saw a while back on Yahoo Finance: “4 Fundamental Reasons Stocks Are Headed Even Higher.” The stock market has been having a rough time -- to say the least -- ever since the crash of 2008. And, because the market can be an indicator of the overall health of the economy, rising stock prices suggest good news for everyone.

 

Of course, articles that attempt to forecast the stock market or the economy are hardly reliable. If any of their authors actually knew where stocks were going they wouldn’t have to waste a minute of their time pulling down writers’ pay. But sometimes you want to believe. And when I saw the headline offering reasons for more hope, I clicked.

 

Turns out, the story, which was provided by the financial news service Breakout, was one of those video segment/article combos, where you can watch footage of people sitting at a desk talking and/or read the accompanying article. I started to read the text, expecting an uplifting experience full of convincing, expert insights on why the economy is looking up.

 

It took less than a sentence for me to lose all faith in the writer. The article began: “When I was on my high school basketball team, in the throws of a disappointing season …”

 

If we wanted to be really kind to the writer, we could guess that the word “throws” was maybe intended as a pun. But I’ve seen this typo enough to know that lots of writers just aren’t aware of the word “throes.”

 

A “throe,” according to “Webster’s New World College Dictionary,” is a spasm or pang of pain: usually used in pl.: the throes of childbirth, death throes. Clearly, that’s the word the writer wanted.

 

When I see an error like this, however, I don’t blame the writer. The writing process is weird enough that even a writer who knows the word “throes” can accidentally type “throws.” And even if the writer didn’t know the difference, well, he’s not expected to catch every typo in his own work. That’s the copy editor’s job.

 

Copy editors aren’t perfect, obviously. It’s not inconceivable that this error could have slipped by me. It’s also possible that some last-minute change to the article or its layout caused the error to be inserted after it was edited.

 

Regardless, a typo like this calls into question just how professional this whole news operation is. Was this indeed just “one of those things” that can happen to anyone? Or does it reveal a lack of professionalism that could also offer clues to this news agency’s credibility?

 

I don’t know. And I may never find out. The moment I saw “throws” my hopes that I was going to get good news from a trustworthy authority got tossed out the window.

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