It’s been a busy week for the Grammar Cop. Today’s group of gaffes run the gamut. (Sorry, just felt like giving the letter “g” a workout!) Check these out.

1. MONTREAL GAZETTE: “…no study has yet demonstrated that social media is ‘rewiring’ our…”; and in the very next sentence, “And in cases in which social media does appear to…”! Ouch!  This is an all-too-common error I see. But by an editor? Front and centre on the editorial page, twice? Once again: “MEDIA” is PLURAL. Don’t editors have to be journalism-school grads? (You laugh at my naïveté!) What is really ironic is the fact that on the op-ed page, there is a reprint of a Washington Post article which has the correct usage of the word: “…the medium is decidedly not the message” – referring to the famous McLuhan quote.
2. UPROXX.COM: “Ryan Reynolds slipped on his Deadpool costume months after principle photography wrapped…”  No, he didn’t. However, he did do so after principal photography wrapped.
3. CNN.COM: Here’s an example of a bad editing error. The lead to a Bernie Sanders story said, “Bernie Sanders says the United States and its allies needs to improve survellance.”  Well it turns out Bernie said no such thing; and in fact, I doubt he would ever use the singular verb ending incorrectly like that (“needs”). It should of course say need, since there are two subjects here: 1-the United States, and 2-its allies. Well it turns out that when you start to read the article itself, you see this: “…Sanders says the United States needs to toughen its surveillance to…”  He did not say “and its allies.” Definitely an editing error here; it seems that someone added a phrase but forgot to fix the verb. Boo hiss.
4. THE SUBURBAN: Caught ’em again! Two! Two! Two errors in one…article. The first one is certainly not the fault of the author, who I imagine must’ve been a tad unhappy to see it. His byline says his first name is “Ronert.” Nope. I have it on good authority (having seen his byline many times before – and verifying it via Google) that his name is Robert. True, it’s ‘just’ a typo, but in a name? I don’t forgive that. Then the author himself writes, “Now, if the government really believes it’s budget can have a positive impact…”  Oh Robert. The dreaded apostrophe dilemma trapped you and ground you into grammar glechh. (“Glechh” doesn’t mean anything, but I needed an appropriate “g” word.

The Grammar Cop’s work is done.