I can't disagree with anything that has been said here. The blame is primarily a dependence on computer spell-check programs and cost-cutting on smaller publications. As Mule Deer said, the big magazines are very thorough. My articles in the New York Times Magazine and Reader's Digest put me and my subjects through the ringer. But, my little local newspaper -- where my career began -- is atrocious. Every issue has a list of corrections from the previous issue. For them I will add one more category of blame: LAZINESS. Just flat lazy.
I don't think we can blame it completely on computers. A couple of the textbooks that I am using right now are in 5th or 6th editions. I find wrong or misspelled words on every other page; many of the words are not even words! Pathetic!
