How news editing has made me dislike stupid people

OK, so maybe the title is a little harsh.

The semester is winding down now and we have learned a lot. But what I have noticed through the semester is that people make mistakes in their writing and in their speech often. And now that I know the mistakes, I have become much more aware of them when I see people making them.
These are some of my biggest pet peeves:
- 'toward,' instead of towards
- 'more than,' instead of using 'over'
- 'farther' is used for distance, not 'further'
- 'compliment' is for saying nice things, not 'complement'
- misusing 'than' when 'from' is correct

I know this list is just a sample of commonly misused words, but these are some that really bother me when I hear or read them. I'm sure that this list is going to grow as I continue to write and edit in my career. Still, I'm very thankful for this class because hopefully I will not make a common mistake in front of a knowledgeable editor.

What are some of your biggest editing pet peeves?

OK, what's with CNN?

I've been trying to catch up with the blogs tonight, and I kept noticing a common theme that many of the posts come from CNN.com.

Admittedly, I go to CNN.com for my news too. I find it easy to use and it is the national news Web site I have used during my time in college. The site always has a lead story and then a list of other top stories that is easy to read through. There are the 'most popular' lists and multimedia that accompanies many of the stories.

But what about sites like the Drudge Report? No multimedia, no most popular lists, nothing fancy ... only a few photos with links to other stories. But it does have a lot of news on it.

So I've just been wondering, why do you choose the news Web sites you do? Can you explain why or is it just a habit?