Charlotte Observer explains edit trail that led to unfortunate Baron Davis typo

NBA guard Baron Davis has a herniated disk. The Charlotte Observer, unfortunately, didn't quite capture the spirit of the injury in a preview box setting up a Bobcats/Knicks game. From a blog post explaining the chain of command that led to the, um, unfortunate error (hat tip to colleague C.M. for the link): Observer reporter Rick Bonnell wrote the preview box, and in it he wrote that Davis, a former Charlotte Hornet, is recovering from a "herniated disc" in his back. The box was edited by an experienced copy editor, the reporter's first line of defense, and moved along in the production process as written.

The next stop was a final read by a second editor, another experienced employee who recognized that "herniated disc" doesn't conform to the newspaper's style for that type of injury, and that it should be "herniated disk." That editor tried to type in the correction, but ended up with an unfortunate typo.

Because part of that second editor's job is to send stories to the typesetter, the typo was moved along without another set of eyes to catch the error, and that led to what you saw in today's paper. And no doubt to a lot of snickering.

Follow this link to see the error as it ran.