Journalism has always been obsessed with perfection. The story has to be dead to rights, the copy desk better make sure it’s a semicolon, not an em-dash. If a headline’s wrong there will be hell to pay come the news meeting tomorrow morning.
There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it’s fantastic. Papers of record should, and must, be held to the most stringent and reliable quality. My issue is when this mentality of perfection crawls from the editor’s desk to the business desk and the production line.
