Shameless AssKissers/Backstabers

I know of a place at a major paper where a copy chief would do first read on every single piece of copy that came through. He would then send the SE a list of every typo and grammatical error that the writers made.

When someone told me about that I asked him what the writers are doing and he killed, "We're taking up a collection to have him killed..."

Apparently, the SE hated him as the writers so that was the only saving grace.

 

What's amazing is how successful these lowlifes are in using these tactics. Guess that's another way of saying what's amazing is how stupid the bosses are. Some never catch on.

 

Man, if I was the SE and some copy guy did that, if he ever let an error get through -- one single error -- I'd hang him by the heels from the highest tree in creation.

 

Slightly OT, but I recently turned in some copy to which our online staff actually added two huge mistakes. I sent a rather angry but profanity-less e-mail, and Online Guy had the audacity to get offended at the e-mail.

Sorry, man, but when I file piece of copy, I sure as hell don't expect it to come out worse.

 

First, do no harm.

 

Yes I know them. I dislike them, they dislike me. They know to stay away and not mess with me, and I leave them alone as well. There's a strange harmony there.

 

Monica Seles, is that you?

 

I've worked with some of them, fortunately none as bad as that guy. I worked with a copy editor who applied for a writing job and was passed over. Over the next year, he pointed out every mistake the guy made to every level of management. Think the executive editor wants to know that the beat writer had a typo in the third paragraph of his gamer?

It got so bad, they almost fired him for it and eventually the guy got fed up and quit.

 

There was a guy on the beat I cover we called "Eddie Haskell" because he sucked up so much to the head coach's wife.

 

As if you're supposed to just let THEIR fuckup in your story slide with no comment?