Warning: This is a complaint about H. Carroll's recent rant about
newspapers. Please read no further if you are offended by such
exchanges.

 First, as someone who only with great difficulty can resist correcting
the grammar and spelling of strangers on the Internet, let me caution
that one indulges in such activity at the risk of being, in turn, the
recipient of corrections.
  Your gripes about the quality of writing in newspapers, first of all,
are far too general. It should be fairly obvious that quality will vary
all over the map. I don't know what your local newspaper was, but the
newspaper I read is of consistently high quality and superior style. It
isn't perfect, and errors therefore stick out like sore thumbs. The most
frequent error involves the use of the verbs "lie" and "lay" and their
tenses, which apparently confuse you as well (your newspapers LAY on the
steps, not LAID); I don't know about you, but these words were covered
in my sixth grade English classes, if not earlier. I think you'll find
that most grammarians would prefer "a police officer who" rather than "a
police officer that". By the way, thanks for spelling "grammar"
correctly, rather than the incorrect way many subscribers to this list
do. But speaking of the list, the fact that there is so much flagrant
misuse of English on an allegedly professional list--combined with
people aggressively defending their right to deviate from accepted
usage--that it should be no wonder if there is a corresponding decline
in newspaper English. I wonder, H. Carroll, how you can stand to be on a
listserv like this if you have so much trouble with the inadequacies of
newspapers?

As far as being well-informed is concerned, your assertion that "fleeing
is a shootable offense" is a simplistic, uninformed, inaccurate opinion.
You would be well advised to read more crime and courtroom reportage to
straighten out this little misunderstanding. I think the educated person
must be aware of newspapers to be even moderately well informed. That
doesn't mean you must believe everything you read--nor is there any
reason to discount everything either. I accept what I read
provisionally. Truth, like life, is subject to revision.

--David Haberstich