Friday Curmudgeon: Who Edits this "Newspaper"?

There was a news story in the local newspaper, a major paper owned by one of the world's richest men recently that made the curmudgeon in me come out. It was a story about a murder that happened in Prince George's County, Maryland. 

The text of the article read in part as follows: 

Nader said it appears that the shooter knew the deceased, chased him down and shot him in the food court.

My comments on reading this: 

• Shooting the deceased was a little excessive, if he was the deceased, he was by definition already dead. 
• How do you chase a person who is deceased?
• Is it murder to shoot a person who is deceased?*
• What part of the body is the food court? 
• Is it painful to be shot in the food court? (Well not if you are already deceased.)  

Another passage read: 

Authorities said they think the attacker fled the scene with a car.**  

My Comments on reading this: 

• Did he steal a car?
• Was he carrying the car? 
• Pushing the car?
• Did he have a tow truck? 

Now I know my writing is not perfect. I also don't claim to be a professional journalist, I am not being paid by a billionaire to report the local news.  That being said, Yorkshire pudding would have edited this in about 30-seconds for clarity while retaining meaning. Hell, I could have edited this in about two minutes to mean what this person intended to say. A change of two or three words in these two sentences move this from being a bad joke, to a solid short news report. The article was only 250-300 words, it was not rocket science. Without editing it was compost. The only logical conclusion is that NO ONE is editing the newspaper. 

* Law students are torchered with that question every year. It is attempted murder if the shooter believed the person was alive when they shot them, even if the person was already deceased. 

** https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/12/03/shooting-mgm-national-harbor-hotel-casino-maryland/