Color and crime

Jackie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:58 pm

From the AP digest. What's wrong with this sentence?Died in Custody from CINCINNATI â€” A 400-pound black man died after being struck repeatedly by police wielding metal nightsticks, and the mayor said Monday a videotape showed that the officers were defending themselves.Why oh why is it always -- ALWAYS -- relevant when the perp is black? I haven't read the story yet but I'm sure there's more to it than the beating, what with race riots in Cincinnati not too long ago, and of course the parallels to Rodney King, who also was black. But reading that digest item, why the hell is it necessary to point out that the man is black (the weight is debatable but I already know the angle on that) and it is not deemed necessary to explain to what race the police officers belong?And if the perp were white, I suspect race wouldn't even be mentioned.I know others will disagree, and with valid points, but I still hate to see this and it makes me crazy.

Bakelite · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:17 pm

The lede should clarify why, in this case, the mention of the victim's race is relevant:CINCINNATI (AP) - A 350-pound black man died after being clubbed repeatedly by police in a videotaped beating that stoked racial tensions in Cincinnati nearly three years after the city was rocked by riots.My question is, why is his weight in the lede?

Bakelite · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:36 pm

Note that the AP moved down the victim's weight in the 1ST LD-WRITETHRU.CINCINNATI (AP) - A black man died after being clubbed repeatedly by police in a videotaped beating that stoked racial tensions in Cincinnati nearly three years after the city was rocked by riots.

Jackie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2003 6:06 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Dean Betz:
Note that the AP moved down the victim's weight in the 1ST LD-WRITETHRU.CINCINNATI (AP) - A black man died after being clubbed repeatedly by police in a videotaped beating that stoked racial tensions in Cincinnati nearly three years after the city was rocked by riots.<hr></blockquote>Yeah, that story is making more and more sense as the day progresses, but jeez, does it take all day to get it more palatable?

Jackie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:58 pm

Here's the fourth lede write-thru. They're still struggling with the lede, but the weight is back. (For our paper, I took out the weight and added it later in the story where I thought it made sense, and I said he was beaten by white officers, because. I saw the video. The story does note that one of the police officers was black.)CINCINNATI (AP) â€” A 350-pound black man died after being clubbed repeatedly by officers in a videotaped beating that raised new allegations of police brutality against blacks in Cincinnati nearly three years after the city was rocked by riots.

Emily Salmon · **Joined:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 1:01 am **Posts:** 86

If only he had kept the size-6 figure he had on his wedding day, this never would have happened.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2003 1:17 am

I've handled a wires story tonight about Dame Kiri Te Kanawa shocking staff at a Glasgow hotel by asking to put her shotguns into safe storage.
All good until the gratuitous reference to her being a Maori singer.
As relevant as saying I am a Pakeha (non-Maori New Zealander) copy editor.

Jackie · **Posted:** Tue Dec 09, 2003 12:02 am

Similar topic, same problem. This is off the LA Times page 1 budget. Just based on this budget line, I'd be asking questions if I were the editor. What on earth does this guy's mental state have to do with the story?An ex-defense attorney who suffers a debilitating psychological condition, Thomas Van Orden sued the state of Texas two years ago in federal court, claiming that a 5-foot-tall monolith to the Ten Commandments, on the grounds of the Capitol, violates the First Amendment's ban on ``establishment of religion''; an appeals court ruled that the monument constitutes a ``secular message'' and can stay; now, Van Orden is piecing together a final appeal to the Supreme Court.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Tue Dec 09, 2003 2:57 pm

Hi Jackie.As a magazine copy editor who cannot change copy without approval of senior editors, I was surprised that you could move Nathaniel Jones' weight out of the lede and farther down in the story. But then I have heard that newspaper copy editors have much more line-editing responsibility than do mag copy editors.In terms of adding the race of the beating officers to the story, though, I am curious: Would you have been held responsible for the mistake if, say, one or more of the officers turned out to have been a person of color--perhaps an Asian or a very light-skinned black (you did say later that one of the nonbeating officers was black)? Though I didn't study the tape as perhaps you did, I did see clips of the video on TV, and it looked pretty grainy to me. I wouldn't want to stake my credibility on saying that all the beating officers were white. I'm just playing devil's advocate, not insulting your ability to discern race.

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue Dec 09, 2003 4:22 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by wordygurdy:
Hi Jackie.As a magazine copy editor who cannot change copy without approval of senior editors, I was surprised that you could move Nathaniel Jones' weight out of the lede and farther down in the story. But then I have heard that newspaper copy editors have much more line-editing responsibility than do mag copy editors.<hr></blockquote> Can you really not change anything without asking first? I do a lot of rewriting at times, and I don't need to ask approval for the vast majority of it. My Snews colleagues and I have plenty of leeway, so long as what we do is appropriate and justifiable. (In olden days there were a few desk men who were prone to arbitrary rewriting that caused problems and eventually got at least one of them fired.)[ December 09, 2003: Message edited by: SusanV ]

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Tue Dec 09, 2003 5:20 pm

Susan,Yep, we have to ask. We can fix grammatical errors and make the copy conform to house style, but we can't rewrite.Interesting about you and your colleagues having plenty of leeway and that one of your colleagues was fired for arbitrary rewriting. I would imagine that a newspaper copy editor would have much less time for rewriting, what with having to take care of so many other responsibilities.[ December 09, 2003: Message edited by: wordygurdy ]

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:12 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by wordygurdy:

We can fix grammatical errors and make the copy conform to house style, but we can't rewrite.]<hr></blockquote>One imagines that with such high-quality work
coming across your desk that your product outsells Time magazine. I'd be angling for a more collegial environment.

Jackie · **Posted:** Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:12 pm

Wordy, to answer your question, yes as wire editor I am held responsible for the content of wire stories. I also heavily rewrite as I see fit and every once in a while write new leads if I think the existing ones are lame. I also often write several stories on a single topic together (for example, to create a single Iraq roundup story) as well as stories on a single topic from different news services. If two services are used in a single story, I run both in a byline, and the service whose material I used most would be listed first. If more than two, I use the byline "Herald news services."Which is more than you probably wanted to know, I'm just killing time waiting for the Democrats to end their alleged debate.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:58 am

Veddy innnnteresting, Jackie. I saw the alleged debate tonight whilst eating in a restaurant. The owner actually had the debate on one of the two TVs that overhang opposite ends of the bar--they are usually both tuned to sporting events, and the other one was tuned to a basketball game--but alas, the sound was muted on both screens.Too bad. I would have liked to hear how or whether the remaining candidates reacted to Gore's premature endorsement of Dean. I wonder if Joe Lieberman felt the shiv going in or whether it was quick and painless?

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:09 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Paul Wiggins:
One imagines that with such high-quality work
coming across your desk that your product outsells Time magazine. I'd be angling for a more collegial environment.<hr></blockquote>Paul,Good advice. I'd take it, except that that is the case at many consumer magazines. Copy editors are rarely if ever allowed to rewrite without approval of higher-ups. (And besides, most consumer magazines have people working in those higher editorial slots--being paid good money ostensibly to catch holes in stories or rewrite if needed.)We are seen as people who cannot grasp the "big picture." This is a generalization and definitely doesn't apply to everyone with whom I've worked, but it does apply to enough people to be stated as a truism.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:27 am

Angling for a more collegial environment is a polite way of saying knock on a few doors. I know exactly the thing you are talking about with the magazines. Don't give up on a good craft because of one bad gig I reckon.

SusanV · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2003 12:00 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by wordygurdy:
Susan,Yep, we have to ask. We can fix grammatical errors and make the copy conform to house style, but we can't rewrite.Interesting about you and your colleagues having plenty of leeway and that one of your colleagues was fired for arbitrary rewriting. I would imagine that a newspaper copy editor would have much less time for rewriting, what with having to take care of so many other responsibilities.[ December 09, 2003: Message edited by: wordygurdy ]<hr></blockquote> Could be. BTW, if it wasn't clear, I'm at a weekly magazine. Frantic Friday closes notwithstanding, copy flow here tends to fluctuate wildly between glacial and steady.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2003 6:39 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by wordygurdy:
Susan,......Interesting about you and your colleagues having plenty of leeway and that one of your colleagues was fired for arbitrary rewriting. I would imagine that a newspaper copy editor would have much less time for rewriting, what with having to take care of so many other responsibilities.[ December 09, 2003: Message edited by: wordygurdy ]<hr></blockquote>You do whatever it takes. Generally I like to edit with a light touch. But if I have to do a massive rewrite, I will. Do it well and there's a surprising lack of conflict. The important thing is to confer with colleagues first.[ December 10, 2003: Message edited by: Paul Wiggins ]

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