HuffPo Headlines Suffer from Deadlines

It's not the first time I've noticed the Huffington Post running a headline with an error or confusing grammatical construction (see earlier posts here, here and here).

And I really should remind myself of Muphry's Law, which says that "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." Which is a corollary of the one about those living in glass houses not throwing stones, or ye who are without sin cast the first stone, or some other adage about stones.

Despite all that, I can't help sharing these recent finds from the HuffPo:


I guess this August 24, 2009 headline means that fruit flys like a banana. (Apologies to Groucho Marx.)


I'm always willing to boldly split infinitives when it aids comprehension, but in this case it makes Rush's judging conditional in the future, rather than in the present. Which makes no sense, although it's hard to explain why. (October 8, 2009)


This was part of yesterday's extra-big story that ran across the top of the page. And there it was -- probably my biggest peeve of all among word confusions -- "honing in" when they really meant "homing in" (like a homing pigeon).

I sympathize with the folks responsible for writing these -- and all -- news headlines. It's so easy to make a mistake and not see it when it's something you wrote, especially when you're on deadline. We've all done it.

But at the same time, it's fun when you catch one!