A troubling spell . . .

I've been pulled up a couple of times in recent days by some of my avid readers for spelling errors on this very blog,

.

Or, as we industry-types like to call them, "typos" (this is a phrase used so that the inputter of the "typos" can say: "Oh no, it's not a spelling mistake, I simply hit the wrong key because I was typing so fast." It's all the computer's fault, you see).

Now, as I pointed out to one of these people, speling haz neva bin mi strong poynt.

But the beauty of newspapers is that when pages are laid out they are checked by several people. That doesn't mean mistakes don't still creep in. We're only human after all. We are human. Honest.

But it raises an interesting point (well, interesting to me) about things on t'internet. So many things on there aren't checked by anybody. They are written and edited by the author . . . and that's it.

Now, many is the time I or one of my colleagues has pondered what we ever did before Google (other search engines are available*). Journalists use the internet as a research tool all the time.

But as the recent story about Wikipedia showed (its founder Larry Sanger, admitted the information "bible" contains "frequently unreliable content" and is "broken beyond repair") going to at least three or four sources should be a standard practice.

So as we all ponder what life will be like in the years to come and whether there will be any place for newspapers in the digital age, just remember. . . the truth isn't always out there.

* Here's a good game if you're bored. Use the Ask Jeeves website. Ask anything - see if you get an answer even remotely close to what you asked. My favourite was when I asked about cheap holidays . . . and was given the option of learning to fly a jumbo jet. I suppose it could save some money in the long term . . .

• David Burrows is the Shropshire Star's National News Editor.

• Comment on his blog in the box below.