My continual pet peeve: babbling copy editors

I'm sure I did my share of it when I worked on the desk. I'm sure everyone does every now and then. You just try to keep it at a minimum. Some can, and obviously, some can't.

 

Unless you're a one-man desk, bitching will happen. Some people might complain all the time, but they'll eventually realize they're not perfect, either.

 

Fixed.

 

I don't know. Sometimes the bitching can help. If a writer makes the same mistake a lot and the copy editor bitches about it out loud, you get a heads up to look for it when you are graced with the writer's copy the next day.

Yes, someone should tell the writer to quit making that mistake, but that breaks down for many reasons:

1) Newsroom politics

2) Time

3) Slow learning curve

 

I worked at a place once where my desk was near the news desk -- which was populated entirely by females. What a damn hen-fest THAT was.

RB

 

Yeeeeeeeesh. Glad to see you made it out alive.

 

Well, there are the venters and then there are the ones who seek praise for all the mistakes they catch. Same barnyard, two different animals.

 

But, I have Placido Polanco. When did he go 2-for-5?

 

To be fair, there really is no praise for catching things unless you seek it out. Yes, it's our job and a bi-weekly paycheck should be "praise" enough. And it was for 25 years. But for me, in year 26, with the whacking of newsrooms everywhere, you better be letting people know your worth to the company.

I'm a designer by job description but a copy editor at heart. If I find something egregious enough that it would warrant a correction, I don't shout it from the rooftops. But I make sure my slot knows about it. And if the slot happens to send a nightly message to the senior editors (aka the ones who decide who stays and who goes) informing them of this catch --- which happens on occasion --- then so much the better.

Wish that wasn't the environment we worked in. But I wish a lot of things that aren't true anymore.

 

There's a difference between bitching out a cub reporter for writing "win" instead of "victory" (as in, who gives a flying fuck about the difference now?) and pointing out a potentially serious factual error.

I used to harp on typos and minor spelling mistakes when I worked at my previous full-time gig. When my editing load got much bigger, I started only pointing out the serious mistakes.

 

the 50s miss you

 

My copy editors have saved my ass more than a few times.

If they want to complain about how much I suck, then, sure, I'll even pile on in a self-deprecating manner.