The Crimson White, the student newspaper at the University of Alabama, was red-faced after misspelling the name of UA's hometown in a recent front-page headline. The bolded header in the lead story inverts the L and the A in the historic Southern city Tuscaloosa, creating the even more wackily-named Tusclaoosa.
The tsk-tsk top-of-the-fold typo is among the most cringe-inducing accidental slips in the college mediasphere this academic year. The three other biggies involve sexual assault, a sorority 'ho', and one very bad motherf*cker.
The Bad Motherf*cker Byline
In early March, the byline for a staffer at the Western Courier, the student newspaper at Western Illinois University, went viral for its vulgarity. On a back-page story, instead of being described as the newspaper's assistant sports editor, WIU student Mick Vaught was referred to as a bad motherf*cker. According to the Courier editor in chief, the profane descriptor had apparently been a playful part of the Courier's pre-publication template for years.
In an apology to readers, the editors wrote, "The stressful atmosphere of the newsroom often times [sic] leads to using 'jokey' or foul bylines in the table-reading portion of the editing process. Even so, this is unacceptable and amateurish. Further, such a mistake creates the undeserved image that the Courier staff is sloppy and unprofessional. But as the staff of an award-winning newspaper, we know the value of making mistakes such as this, and we have learned from it."