Testy Copy Editors

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 Post subject: Hacks
PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2002 10:47 am 
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
L was a superb city editor in his day. When I was a “cub reporter,” he watched as I hyperventilated about the difficult logistics of covering a big fire. “What’s my deadline? What if there’s no phone? What if the chief won’t talk to me? Will I have enough time to talk to the neighbors? What if they don’t let my car through the lines?” I prattled.
“Just cover the damn fire,” L told me. He had little patience for major productions. I learned a lot from him.
Fourteen years later, when I returned to L’s newspaper as a copy editor and slot man, I was at first delighted to find him on the copy desk. What a font of information, I thought. How lucky it was that the reporters of 1986 had such a resource from which to draw.
But L was just marking time. He came in at 5 every day, sat down and plowed through whatever was tossed his way, quickly and without comment. His copy editing was competent but just barely so. His headlines were serviceable but nothing better. He went home for lunch at mid-shift every night and came back carrying bad novels to read during his down time and, also, a hint of the Scotch he professed to love so well.
My first role model had become a hack.
L retired a couple of years after I left the paper for Chicago, and died not long after that.
Throughout my career I have encountered hacks. Most of them were personable. Most of them went through the ritual of juggling eyeglasses with various prescriptions so they could read copy on their VDTs. A good number of them were drunks or reformed drunks.
Almost all of them were frank about their ambition: They had none. They talked a lot about retirement, and most of them had hobbies or other avocations that they clearly cared about more than they did newspaper work.
They generally could be depended upon to move copy quickly. Usually one of them was the guy who got the Page One story that moved an hour and half past deadline, because he (exclusively, the hacks I knew were men) would fix the spelling and write a usable headline in no time.
We could always go back between editions and do it right.
As I approach the age of 50, hacks are on my mind because of a dreadful fear of becoming one. In my more rational moments, I realize that while I may, regrettably, have become mildly eccentric in my middle age, I would have to slide considerably to become a hack. (Most hacks are eccentric, but not all copy-desk eccentrics are hacks.) It is true that I have to go through the eyeglass-fumbling ritual when I arrive at work, but I can’t be blamed for failing eyesight.
My strategy for avoiding hackdom is simple: I try to remain engaged. In previous positions, that was not a problem; as what might be laughingly called a “key” editor, I had specific responsibilities for entire sections of the newspaper.
Now, as a “pure” copy editor, I find it necessary to stick my nose into other people’s business to maintain the level of engagement I require to stay reasonably sharp. No doubt others find this annoying at times, but I am willing to accept that judgment if it helps me avoid obsession with fly-fishing, building a vacation home, or investing to finance a “comfortable retirement”—a term I consider oxymoronic.<p>[ April 16, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]<p>[ April 16, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2002 3:03 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 485
Location: San Jose, CA
Wouldn't working for the Washington Post sorta mitigate against hackdom?


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2002 3:35 pm 
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
Hacks are everywhere. They're just harder to find in some places.


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2002 7:10 pm 
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1286
Location: Saranac Lake, N.Y.
It's probably all too easy to slide into hackdom at a newspaper where good copy editing is not appreciated or is given only lip service. So if you're worried about hackdom you need to either (a) find a job at a top-notch paper or (b) stay true to your own standards. Since you've done both, you don't have much to fret about.<p>An aside: I know the editor blanp referred to. He once was asked to write a caption for a pointless picture of a building (or something, can't recall clearly) taken with a fish-eye lens. He wrote:<p>"X [or whatever], as seen through the bottom of a drained shot glass." It ran.


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 5:02 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1775
Location: Baltimore
One of my bosses has a lovely saying: "Be an editor, not a sphincter." Don't simply move the, um, stuff along. Take pride, or get out.<p>For someone struggling in life, or disillusioned with his or her job, that's not easy. Bills must be paid, no matter how miserable you are for whatever reason. <p>Sometimes we need to add or subtract from our work routine. It's easy to fall into being a hack, and each of us must find a way to avoid that. Don't count on supervisors to do that for you.<p>I like ADKBrown's ideas: Get to a good paper, and find ways to challenge yourself. But as Phil says, hacks are everywhere, and some were once excellent newsmen. Looking beyond one's narrowly defined duties is a good way to stay on top. Avoiding unhealthful addictions is another.<p>Keep fighting the good fight, Phil.


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2002 3:13 pm 
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Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 257
Location: back in D.M., funny enough
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, lack of ambition (if read to mean "moving up the ladder") does not necessarily mean one has given up on doing a good job. Some people find something they're very good at and decide that it's what they want to do, in perpetuity. They don't want to manage people. I've said more than once to people who matter at my newspaper that I don't really care whether I get promoted, and everyone seems cool with it. I get to do what I'm best at, I get fat raises, and my boss loves me because I've already told her I have no interest in her job. <p>It drove my last girlfriend crazy, however. "You're so happy with you're little life, but you could have so much more."


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2002 9:57 pm 
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Posts: 485
Location: San Jose, CA
Fat raises? <p>You couldn't be working for any newspapers that I've ever heard of. Maybe you're working for the Martian Chronicle?


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2002 2:59 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 476
Location: Twin Cities
Becoming bitter and burned out: the opposite of hackdom or the first step?


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2002 9:18 am 
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Joined: Thu Apr 25, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 38
Think about L's career. At one point, he's a city editor, able to have some hand in shaping news coverage and training staff members; later, he's a rimrat, taking orders from someone who used to be one of his cub reporters. (Yes, I know, you're a kindly tyrant, but still ...) Going from city editor to rimrat is hardly a promotion, and probably not by choice. If one's work isn't valued, why shouldn't he be more interested in what happens outside of the newsroom? Maybe the reason he didn't impart his wisdom to the young reporters (as a rimrat) was because no one was interested in hearing it. Not because it wasn't valuable, but because they were too blind to realize its worth. The discussion here is sounding like "hackdom" is a sin or an illness, when it may be a very realistic reaction to how one is treated. The best cure for "hackdom" is usually to get out and go do something different, but that's not always possible.


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Fri May 17, 2002 10:45 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 4
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Last weekend I went to Eastern Kentucky University's graduation ceremonies, and was excited when I found out that the speaker would be White House correspondent Helen Thomas. <p>I wish I'd taken notes. Her speech was a hundred cliches, strung together with banalities that culminated in, "Brush your teeth every day." <p>To her credit, she managed to say something about how patriotism shouldn't smother free speech or critical thinking. But it was a rote performance: sad, embarassing, and odd. <p>The university's press release makes it sound somewhat better:<p>http://www.publicrelations.eku.edu/news/spring_commencement_2002.htm<p>But it was cringingly awful.


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Thu Dec 26, 2002 6:29 am 
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Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 1
Location: Australia
I worked as a copy editor for about seven months this year before returning to general reporting duties.
The chief copy editor is dedicated, loves the job she is doing and makes everyone else want to strive for the same high standard of work she produces.
Working for someone who does not accept mistakes as "a part of the job" has made me a better journalist (and less of a headache for copy editors).


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:47 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 3557
Location: Cusp of retirement, grave or both
I worked with "L" at the same time ADK did, and remember the cutline well. It still is cited as a masterful little bit of subversion.<p>The last time I saw L before he died was in the library across the street from the paper. He'd been retired a few years. His hearing, never good when I knew him, was completely shot.<p>The place was packed. He boomed out a welcome that could be heard 50 yards outside the library door. He kept talking to me in this really loud voice, and asked me how a certain editor was. This surprised me, because I knew he did not like Editor X. I told him the editor in question had become a supervisor on the copy desk. <p>This set him into a fury, and he went into a shouting tirade about Editor X, name and all.
It was so entertaining, loud and profane that everyone in the place was looking at him.<p>Quite a moment. This, and the fish-eye lens caption, will be how I remember L.


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2002 7:09 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 131
Location: Cleveland, OH
My favorite hack took obituaries at the paper where I started work. He sat at the next desk. Thursday nights, he'd lubricate his lunch a little, sit down at his typewriter, adjust his truss and start telling tall tales. I was warned several times not to listen, but I thoroughtly enjoyed him.
There is a place for both hacks and thoroughbreds. Assigned a 90-inch thumbsucker about airplane parts or something equally exciting, your basic hack will plow through it and can usually be counted on to find, if not the libel, at least the gross grammatical and spelling errors. I guess libel is what the slot is for. Your usual thoroughbred would whine for hours and miss both.
Hacks usually know the correct names of roads and will take satisfaction in fixing them. Handed a story that approaches their outside interests, they will catch all the problems (and a few that aren't) and may brighten up to write a clever headline. Thoroughbreds will catch incorrect names of roads sometimes, if they're not busy sorting out an faulty parallelism in the same sentence. They probably don't have an outside interest you can play to, but they can be relied upon to insert a pun in every head.
You need both. The challenge is to get them to appreciate one another.


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2002 7:39 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1775
Location: Baltimore
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica ,sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Pete Zicari:
There is a place for both hacks and thoroughbreds. <hr></blockquote><p>What is the definition of a thoroughbred, in this context? A fragile, temperamental, erratic would-be star?


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Sat Dec 28, 2002 5:24 pm 
In my experience, many hacks are allowed to continue to be hacks because they are politically protected from on high for extremely mysterious and obscure reasons that probably date back at least 20 years ....


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 Post subject: Re: Hacks
PostPosted: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:47 am 
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Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 131
Location: Cleveland, OH
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica ,sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Wayne Countryman:
<p>What is the definition of a thoroughbred, in this context? A fragile, temperamental, erratic would-be star?<hr></blockquote><p>That's about it. Rereading what I posted, I see that in my haste to defend hacks, I wasn't entirely fair to the thoroughbreds, for their best heads will be far and away better than the hacks'. Thoroughbreds will call the AP, or a reporter, to get an answer. Hacks will call the desk.


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