Spell Check Isn't The End All for Proofing

I love the computer. I love the internet. I love being able to read news stories or entertainment bits and business news any time I want, when I'm ready to read them. I'm most definitely a child of the 70's who grew up just in time for computers to come into the mainstream. I remember when my High School installed its first six PC terminals in Mrs. Mason's typing classroom with fondness and nostalgia. Of course, this was before Windows operating system when everyone used DOS or MS DOS. And before anyone but military personnel had ever heard of the internet or world wide web.

I also remember when finding a mistake in a newspaper article or magazine was a rare thing and resulted in clipping said article for inclusion in a scrap book. When I was in school (both High School and college) I was constantly reminded by teachers and professors to proofread, proofread, proofread and when done proofreading, proofread again just to be certain. Now, I will admit that I have posted comments on Facebook or tweeted things that I didn't proofread which included misspelled words or doubled words or incorrect words and even synonyms which didn't quite fit with my intended thought, but I'm not paid to write for a news agency, newspaper or magazine. I've had numerous conversations with most of my friends and close relations about this topic, and they, too, are as confounded as I at the blatant errors to be found in nearly every news item or article found on the internet and especially in those articles produced for the AP or online magazines and newspapers.

I understand the ease of using F7 to check the spelling of the document you're working on, and even my computer offers basic grammar rules in the spell checker. I've copied and pasted certain text from online articles to a blank Word document and pressed F7 only to find that spell checker did find the same mistake I did, so I'm truly at a loss as to how some of these mistakes make it into print, as it were. So, not only does it seem the writers aren't proofreading, some of them aren't even using a very good spell checker! But even if the writer and their spell checker misses something in their article, don't these articles have to be read by an editor before they're posted online, published or printed? Are there not at least two or three people other than the author who read these things before they're released to the public?

I realize the state of education in this country isn't what it once it was, but these mistakes are simple, stupid and are things even a third grader would spot.