The lament that software engineering is not real engineering because we eschew formal methods is one I've heard a lot (not from you), but in those fields testin

The lament that software engineering is not real engineering because we eschew formal methods is one I've heard a lot (not from you), but in those fields testing and failure are very, very expensive. In places where failures are expensive, such as high volume websites, we use techniques such as A/B testing to limit the scope of expense of failures and detect them earlier. In cases where failure is truly unacceptable we take more drastic measures such as formal verification, restricting programmer freedom through coding standards, etc. Even he dramatic story about having a wrong number read out on NPR you'll notice she is the one punishing herself; no-one really admonishes her, there are no negative repercussions. As economic pressures have increased in journalism, this attitude that everything must be fact checked has fallen by the wayside since it is not economically viable any more. This economic pressure coincides with mass adoption of the internet though, and the real cause may not just be their declining ad revenue, but the increased competition between news outlets to be first, since that's what drives clicks. The saying that the perfect is the enemy of the good exists for a reason.