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Dear USA Today,
I just wanted to give you a pat on the back and say thanks for proving that people in the US aren't self-absorbed idiots with little regard for the rest of the world...like so many people in the rest of the world already believe.
I refer to this article here.
I'm guessing that since it was on the Idol Chatter page, that one of your high school interns probably wrote it. That could be the only logical explanation for your lack of editing or fact checking.
Referring to Singapore as a city in Malaysia not only makes your paper look ridiculously idiotic, but it also proves the care in which you take in reporting factual information. Whether it be about entertainment issues or not. Don't you have a map or better yet, access to Google?
The people here in Singapore that saw that article were more than a little peeved. It'd be like calling Lawrence a town in Missouri or Columbia a place in Kansas. (This is just to put it in perspective for my jayhawkers out there.)
So thanks for making the Americans look stupid again. We've needed a lot more help since Bush left office.
Sincerely,
The American girl in Singapore
**UPDATE - The article has been edited to properly show that Singapore is not in Malaysia. So if you're going there to see what they messed up, you won't see it now. Thanks USA Today for correcting your error. I'm still a lil mad at you though.
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6 years ago
5 comments:
amazing how editors can miss these things! a few years ago, some other major american newspaper showed a map of europe, but they'd labeled france as "spain" and germany as "france." it really sucks for us americans abroad b/c then we never hear the end of how stupid we are in geography. so embarrassing!
Kinda funny considering the comment I made earlier about how most Americans haven't heard of Singapore, and don't know where it is.
Still, what kind of writer does a piece about someone in Singapore and then gets a fact like that wrong?
Even if the average person hasn't heard of Singapore, getting those details right is a writer's job.
By the way, it looks like they edited the article. They didn't even bother to use a strikethrough and note the correction either, unless it was part of the video, which I didn't watch. I don't care for Carrie Underwood.
i must say, that's new! usually Singapore is in China or part of. haha!
I once got a packet from an Ivy League college addressed to "Singapore, China". And at another college visit when I said I went to school in Singapore they said "Oh, is that on Formosa?" Formosa?! Not only wrong, but did we go back in time? Needless to say, both school got taken off the list rather quickly!
Beth, that's pretty sad, coming from universities. Even if most Americans think Singapore is just a town somewhere in China, you'd at least hope that our centers for higher learning would get it right.
I think I would've scratched them off my list too.
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