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Sports deskers with no sportswriting experience?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by shotglass, Sep 10, 2008.

  1. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    yes, but they can do it better knowing what they go through -- on both sides.
     
  2. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    The worst desker is a desker who criticizes the guy who has his former beat. He's the one always grumbling about what the reporter should write about or what he should've said that in his story. He's also the one who makes it a point to highlight his replacement's mistakes. I really love it when the desker, who wasn't at the game, talks as if he were there.
    Deskers like that, while they may be good, are like tumors. They can destroy a department.
     
  3. greenlantern

    greenlantern Guest

    I'm a desk guy at a mid-sized daily. Only news stories I ever wrote were for a reporting class in college. I went from agate clerk to desk and have no desire to cover anything. Not that I hate writing. I just hate reporting. To be honest, I don't want to be in this business until retirement, but as long as I'm in it, I would much rather be in the office. It's how I roll.
     
  4. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    A good number of copy editors I've worked with have never done anything but edit and layout.

    The best ones are usually the ones who used to write though.
     
  5. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Mizzou, I wouldn't stereotype. I know where you are coming from with what you've written. There are some excellent ones who have never written.
     
  6. El Guapo

    El Guapo New Member

    Hello, first-time longtime ...

    I too did most of my writing/reporting in college and pretty much stopped when my adviser told me there's more money to be made on the desk than in beat reporting (jury's still out on that one). So all of my internships were on copy desks.

    Eventually I moved on to a Spanish-language paper, and translating (both ways) is a big part of what I do. It has helped me hone my editing skills in two languages.

    Looking back, I stick by my choice. But I wish I would have taken advantage of more freelance opportunities. I never felt comfortable with beat reporting part, but a few quality bylines over the years could have rounded out my resume.
     
  7. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Didn't say the ones who hadn't written were bad. Just said the ones who had were USUALLY better.
     
  8. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    From a writer's perspective, they are gonna be more understanding and sympathetic, at least.
     
  9. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    No question.

    I am a firm believer that all writers should have to work desk at some point in their careers so they can know what the other side has to deal with. Just doing it as an intern for a summer gave me a whole new respect for what they do. It's definitely prevented me from ever filing long and without spell checking or fact checking.

    When I was an intern on the copy desk, the baseball writer, (considered among the best around) would routinely file stories on deadline with about five or six facts that needed to be checked. This was at a time when one computer in the whole department had the internet and it took about five minutes just to load SportsZone and then, you would inevitably be disconnected when someone would call the main number.
     
  10. EE94

    EE94 Guest

    why do sports REPORTERS always romanticize the term to sports WRITER

    I've never known someone to call themselves a news WRITER

    I think that's the biggest fault in sport journalism - people who WRITE things that contain next to no news

    which brings me to my point in this debate:

    Editors are not failed "writers" and the sooner "writers" recognize that, the better off they will be. Being an editor is a crucial part of the journalistic process and reporters should respect that position more, rather than dismiss them as someone who "couldn't do a beat"

    what is it about a byline - or even worse, a logo - that makes a pig think he is more equal than the others?
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Some "editors" also have trouble understanding or accepting that they are not "writers." If you could educate them as well, I'd appreciate it, Double Es. Gracias.
     
  12. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    The worst copy editors are the ones who are so excited when they catch an error in your story that they feel the need to call you up immediately and tell you.

    "In your running story that you filed 10 seconds after Monday Night Football ended, you wrote that Player X had 47 yards at the half. It says on Sportsline that he had 48."

    That's a fun call to take as you're running to the locker room on deadline.
     
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