Testy Copy Editors

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Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 10 posts ] 
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 Post subject: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 6:03 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 968
Location: Champaign, Ill.
...especially when they're retired.<p>NALCREST — Welcome to Nalcrest, population 800 and ZIP code 33856, where the nation’s letter carriers come to retire when they’ve set down the bag for the last time.
It’s a small town with plenty of mail bonding. Once potential residents get a look at the place, they’re signed, sealed and delivered.

...
Pets, including mail carrier-chasing dogs, are forbidden.
...
The postal workers’ union created Nalcrest more than 40 years ago for the couriers stayed not by snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night, but by age.
And the grand finale:
Kane, Nalcrest’s general manager, knows why the letter carriers stayed while Fedhaven’s residents didn’t.
‘‘We always deliver.’’
<p>Ugh. For the love of the USPS, why so many cutesy references? I can't do anything about the first three grafs -- they're in the lede, and it's locally written. My paper's policy is that absolutely NO CUTS are made to local stories, barring extraordinary circumstances, especially in the lede. I've already been chewed out about that once, even though the bad math I pointed out stayed in. <p>This was a 39-inch epic that ran not in our features section, but in the Local&State section. To paraphrase ESPN writer Bill Simmons, I will now peel the skin off my body.


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 6:11 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 73
Location: "It's really not like the rest of Texas."
It seems so absurd for newspapers to prevent editors from doing their jobs by enforcing such a horrible no-cut rule.


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 6:52 pm 
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
"No cuts" means "no editing"?


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 7:00 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 968
Location: Champaign, Ill.
Your statement is correct as far as the lede is concerned, blanp. I took out most of the others, including the horrendous "snow nor rain nor gloom of night," because I just couldn't take it anymore.


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 7:12 pm 
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
Surely copy editors can, in consultation with the writer or an assigning editor, make necessary alterations.


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 7:36 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 402
Location: Moulin Rouge
The problem at papers like this is that you can "consult" with the generating editors but they have the final say about putting the crap that they "generated" into the paper. What you want to fix is frequently written by someone who has the authority to command that his or her bizarre, incompetent work is not changed. <p>I once had an editor acknowledge that something was really bad but then order me not to change it "because the reporter worked really hard on it and it would be bad for his morale to fix it." Unreal.


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 7:53 pm 
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Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:01 am
Posts: 1025
Location: The Lexington Avenue Spaceship
It's ridiculous that the higher-ups would be so dead-set in their resistance to editing that they'd knowingly allow a math error to go in. Sadly, it's all too believable as well. I've worked at places like that, where that whole "the reporter worked really hard on it so we don't want to hurt his/her feelings by changing it" mentality prevails. <p>The last place I worked, the desk chief got chewed out for calling one reporter -- an INTERN, for cripes sake -- at home too often because his copy had holes you could drive the Sixth Fleet through. But whenever anything went wrong, of course it was the desk's fault; once, the editors neglected to plan any sort of acknowledgement of the anniversary of D-Day (not a milestone anniversary, just another June 6) and got the predictable complaints from WWII veterans. The higher-ups' conclusion: Why didn't the copy desk notice nothing was in the paper and pull something off the wire?<p>Got a little off-topic there, but it does boggle the mind that so many editors see the copy desk as a hindrance rather than the last chance to save them from embarrassment.


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 7:56 pm 
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
The next time that happens, send them here.


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:10 pm 
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Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Niko Dugan:
My paper's policy is that absolutely NO CUTS are made to local stories, barring extraordinary circumstances, especially in the lede. I've already been chewed out about that once, even though the bad math I pointed out stayed in. <hr></blockquote><p>It hurts, I know.<p>[ August 14, 2004: Message edited by: Matthew Grieco ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: Postal workers aren't that interesting...
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 11:18 pm 
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:01 am
Posts: 3137
Location: Homebush NSW Australia
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Matthew Grieco:
<p>It hurts, I know.<p> .... it's kind of unfair that an intern has to get his feet wet in an enviroment like that. ....<hr></blockquote>
But on the bright side, one would venture to suggest the intern wouill swim all the stronger for it.


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