The classic case of editing is news. Millions of words of news pass daily
through the hands of many copy editors throughout the world. A single news
text may be edited five or more times. If news editors do not faithfully pass
on the content they receive, the consumers of news, both the public and
decision-makers/governments, will be misinformed. While the basic analysis
here is a linguistic comparison of texts, the findings take on a pattern only in
the light of social factors. Any inaccurate editing which we find will be
accountable largely in terms of the social systems and ideologies in which the
editors work.