Since when do broadcast news writers have to worry about typos? Since broadcast news websites came along, that's when.

"Viewers are beginning to hold TV sites to the same quality standard as newspaper sites, lashing out at poor grammar, punctuation and story selection," according Cory Bergman, writing for The Lost Remote website.

Newspaper sites have a distinct advantage, duplicating ready-made copy from a large staff of reporters and copy editors. In TV, a web producer must convert and expand broadcast scripts by hand, Bergman said.

And what they have to work with leaves much to be desired, says Steve Safran of New England Cable News. "The scripts reporters write are landmines of awful apostrophes, silly spelling, scattered sentences and grotesque grammar. Which is not to say we shouldn't be more vigilant than our on-air counterparts."

But viewers aren't accepting the excuse that broadcasters have too few people working on the web sites, Bergman says. "While small, overworked web staffs struggle to do more with less, an expanding audience is depending on TV websites for quality news coverage. The result is a rising tide of complaints."

And complainers are not shy.

"I have to wonder if you have someone who is functionally illiterate writing your website articles," one viewer complained to a large-market station. "You may want to send the authors to remedial grammar classes."

Sheesh! Everybody's a critic.