Grammatically Speaking

Is it just me, or have adverbs become completely obsolete? I mean, I guess I can sympathize with the 16 year-old reality show contestant whose pushy stage parents' version of home schooling didn't include the difference between "good" and "well," but I expect more from newscasters and advertisers. I mean, is "ly" really that difficult? It works for 99.9% of adverbs:

-I am tired of poorly written newscasts.
-I fear that today's children are not being taught to speak and write correctly.

See--how hard is that?

Unfortunately, the need for pithiness, for the quick sound bite to keep up with our ever waning attention spans is coming at the cost of proper grammar. And it's driving me insane.

And then there's the atrocity that is subject verb agreement. Singular subject=singular verb. Plural subject=plural verb. "There is lots of mistakes in every edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution" is not acceptable--in more ways than one. Did these individuals not receive their copy of Strunk and White in whatever third rate J school they attended?

And then there is the issue of professionals, individuals with fancy titles like "vice president" and salaries that belie their actual talent and contribution to society, who write emails without any punctuation whatsoever, not to mention the fact that they sound like they were written by someone at 4 a.m. after a round tequila shots, rather than 9 a.m. after morning coffee. Is it really that difficult to click spell check (hint: it's the button with "ABC" on it--there's even one for this blog!) or re-read your email to make sure that it makes any sense?

Do they even teach grammar in schools anymore? Or are people really that lazy?

And even in this increasingly virtual world--help is just a click away! Even The Chicago Manual of Style is online. Use it. Please!