The Weed wrote:

That picture shows why Rogers has Rogers signs everywhere.

Maybe the graphic should have said "Bell looks to avoid Rogers."

There is a definite dividing line in the way video graphics are done these days and the way it used to be. When I started doing it, it was up to the operator of the character generator (i.e. me) to input EVERYTHING - every person's name, every qualifier, every street I.D., even huge amounts of lists explaining everything from the latest budget in Ottawa to a list of bullet point highlights on say, a new law out of City Hall. 

We had literally hundreds of them per show and part of the challenge was not only making sure everything was spelled right (I had a pretty good track record but with such a high volume, there were the very occasional mistakes) but actually gathering them all from each reporter or writer and making sure they were all checked before 6 PM. 

I was a lot younger back then and the job was absolutely exhausting most days, as you ran from edit bay to edit bay, with reporters who didn't come back until 5 PM. High pressure, indeed. 

Then there was the second generation of machines, which had its own challenges. In this case, computers had evolved to the point where the reporter or the editor could enter the info as they went, and it appeared on a screen in front of you. Sounds like it eased the burden, but if anything, it made it worse in a way. 

Why?

The "too many cooks" syndrome. I discovered our editors, while very smart in many ways, really didn't follow the news that much, despite working for a major Toronto newsroom! So not only would I see endless typos, I would also see outright ridiculous mistakes, which I had to catch before airtime.

I remember two in particular that made my head explode. One said "Mayor Al Lastman" instead of Mel, and the other was a location that read "Jerusalem, Beirut." Imagine the reaction if those had gotten to air!

Back then, we didn't have the bottom banner that stayed up through an entire story. I can only shake my head (you can probably hear the rattling from there) at how much harder this job has probably become with so much going on the screen at once these days. I'm just surprised there aren't more errors like these.