Here's a sad but true story about the slow death of editing in our nation's newspapers.
When I'm not writing books my day job is as an editor for a major wire service. I spend my time trimming extraneous words, turning passives into actives, shortening sentences, unburying buried leads and generally making stories flow better, become more readable, more logical, more rigorous. If sourcing is insufficient, I insist on more sources. If a story is biased, I make it balanced. I also often catch errors. As any honest reporter or novelist will tell you, the world needs editors.Yet in our new Internet world, where everything is speed, where accuracy is not particularly valued, these skills seem ever less appreciated.
Call me old-fashioned but accuracy is more important than speed. There's no point being first with the story if you're also wrong. False information, even if traders can make money on it, is ultimately useless. I wish the world would realize this.