Mark Whicker, what were you thinking?

VJ,

The editor is taking responsibility for his part in this, as he should, and speaking from his chair and his point of view, as he should.

And the reason he is taking more responsibility is because that is his job. Whicker's part in this notwithstanding, he is the writer, not the editor. And being a back-stop for the writers is practically the definition of an editor, and, at root, is his or her reason for being there at all.

Did you really expect the editor -- or any editor who hopes to be worth a darn to his staff -- to blast Whicker too much in public?

No doubt that has happened privately, behind closed doors, in some lengthy conference (and maybe a couple of lengthy conferences) sometime in the past couple of days.

I would have given anything to be a fly on one of those walls, because I would have taken something away from it, I'm sure. We all could and should do that in this instance.

But what you're suggesting just wasn't going to happen. And it shouldn't have. I am glad it didn't.

As much angst as we, and the Register's readers, have expressed, it is a very easy thing to do, now, looking back on it with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight.

This is really an example of real life, journalism-style, though, where shit happens when you're in the midst of it.

Still, that doesn't mean that it always does, or always will.

 

VJ...goes with the territory of being a metro copy desk chief.
Again, don't know what circ you're at, but I can promise you, had I let that column get in at 1HP, I would have had a 5 am phone call blasting my ass. Columnist might have been part of the conference call, but my ass would have been the star attraction. It would not have been pretty.
This is a content decision.
This is the fundamental part of that job.
There really is no wiggle room. This person made the decision not to call (or alert any managers who might have called to check in).
That's a huge issue.
I couldn't trust that person to make the right decision after this.
Person might be a great copy editor, but this job requires so much more than that.

 

I agree with most of this, and as I said before I'd be on the phone with the assignment ed or sports ed immediately, but presumably the one who read it before it went online is one of these people. Or maybe not in this day and age. But I'm with Frank, they should have known what he was writing and not left it to the desk. This is what jumped out at me from that apology:

So that's not a hell of an apology in my book. Bit the desk should have been more forceful, for sure.

 

That's clear. But I'm just wondering if one underlying reason is because he's trained himself that, "I'm right, the lunatics are wrong," and it's become such a reflexive defense mechanism that he can't see that it doesn't apply here.

 

Could Whicker have field the column late in the shift? Sometimes that through the food chain objection/get it spiked process takes a while and get severely short on a light-shift holiday.

Has anyone worked with Whicker as a copy editor since he became a columnist or in the last few years. Just because someone is pleasant to work with as they work their way up or are nice to people in the press box doesn't mean they are currently all sweetness and light to the copy desk now that they are at the top.

That said, I agree with Magic In the Night, that often the best writers are the most kind to and involved with the desk.

 

Who needs editors, though? Right?

 

I seriously doubt there is a big paper in this country where a copy editor has the authority to spike a lead columnist's column.

 

Again, I'm not trying to resolve the desk of any responsibility, I just think it's sad that the SE felt the need to throw his entire desk under the bus when he should have said it's my fault for creating an environment where he probably has a no-edit policy and the desk lives in fear of touching the lead columnist's copy. That has to be the case, otherwise any sane person would have spiked it.

 

No, but the copy editor has to see this story and if they have to, print it out and hand it to their boss and say, 'Look at this now,' then explain their concerns. If you've handed it up the chain and explained why it shouldn't run, then it's not on your shoulders any more and you can sleep well at night. If you don't do even that much, then you've failed to do your job.

 

I'd sure like to know who is on that editor's list. Whicker will survive because people will forget this crap in a couple of weeks.
As for the apology by the editor, only three words would've done it for me: "We fucked up."

 

Sirs, Madames,

What Mr Whipped said. And I can't imagine that this wasn't filed in plenty of time for the checks and balances to check and balance.

o-<

 

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Our famous lead columnist routinely files 10 minutes or so before (and sometimes even after) drop-dead deadline. Even when it's a should-have-been-done-way-in-advance column like this one was.