Can't We Hold Ourselves to a Higher Standard?

I was reading the New York Times this morning when I came across an article about seven Virginia deputies that have been charged with murder in the death of a man at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County. The seven are accused of smothering 28-year-old Irvo Otieno whose family emigrated from Kenya when he was four. Pretty serious stuff.

Before we get into the obvious reaction: why in hell's name does this keep happening over and over and over, let's skip ahead to a paragraph about two-thirds of the way through the article. "According to a Washington Post database that tracks police shootings in the United States, 21 percent of people killed by law enforcement since 2015 had a known metal illness."

Like, say, lead poisoning, perhaps? Or, maybe, overexposure to copper sulfate? I know, it's just one letter you say. The brain tends to correct mistakes like this you say. Why get all up in your tighties over such a simple thing as a missing "n"? Because it's a distraction, that's why. It gives the sentence a different meaning and, although one quickly regains equilibrium, the damage is done. It says, "This article isn't quite so important that we bothered to double check our spelling."

Mistakes have been made and will always be made, but in my mind, this one is unforgivable. This one glares at you. It's right at the end of a sentence and paragraph. It's exposed to the max and is easily ferreted out by the reader. So then why is it not noticeable to the author as well? I believe he could have done better--not to mention the copy editors who failed him. We have become sloppy writers due to the weakening of standards and the lack of emphasis on accuracy and more on speed and timeliness. We all can do better.