Mark Whicker, what were you thinking?

I don't think any part of him is sorry.

If he's truly not sorry, he should read the comments at the end of his column and pretend to be sorry.

 

I have a really hard time with the idea that someone on the desk should take the fall for this over the columnist himself.

Regardless of what kind of work he's done before, this completely kills his credibility. Why is anyone in the area going to read anything he does from now on and not think that this is the dumb MFer who made light of a child getting raped?

Pretty sure if you don't have a criminal record but you still get convicted of a crime, you have to do time. It may not involve being fired, but demote his ass down to agate clerk and make him think about what he did.

Not to mention his "apology" is worse than Mark Stanford's.

 

Somebody would have some serious explaining to do?
How about the dude that wrote the fucking column? As an SE, who would you be more furious at ---- the 24-year-old on the copy desk who didn't call you on a holiday or the veteran columnist who thought it would be a good idea to make light of a kidnapping/rape victim in YOUR section?

 

Obviously you had the right people in place in your absence. In this case, one of several things may have happened. 1, No one questioned the column. 2, No one called Mark. 3, No one wanted to take responsibility of pulling it.
The bottom line is that the desk is the last line of defense. Somebody should have said something. No one did. The person in charge, and I don't care if it was a holiday, is just that THE PERSON IN CHARGE. He/she didn't do their job.
Mark is a good columnist and even greater guy. He will rebound from this and it will be an afterthought and a learned lesson.

 

Moddy is right. WFW. Whicker has been in the Top 3 percent of columnists for a long time. He fucked up. I'm pretty sure he knows he fucked up. The desk fucked up, too, though, and needs to be made plainly aware of it. If the copy editor was, as you say, a 24-year-old, the paper's management should be ashamed of itself for giving someone that inexperienced so much responsibility. The column should have been spiked. If the desker was too scared to spike it he/she should have brought it the attention of the ASE or SE, even during a holiday weekend.

 

Oh hell no. Not even close. But still I feel for the guy.

 

Dude, you don't think there is some of that going on?
Truth is, the Register is down to one-touch editing. This wouldn't have happened two years ago.

You're right on.

 

that's just it, his "apology" and blog remarks he made indicate he doesn't know he fucked up.

 

Not arguing that it should have been spiked. Of course it should have.
I'm arguing with this notion (maybe it's just perceived on my part) that the copy desk deserves more blame --- or even equal blame --- than the guy that actually wrote the thing.
Plenty of people fucked up.

At the end of the day, those are HIS words. Not theirs. And while I would be upset that the person I left in chrage didn't feel the need to call me on something like that, I would be OUTRAGED that my veteran columnist turned something like that in to run in my section.

 

Yep.