The Simmons Site

And it's not like spellcheck wouldn't catch at least some of this stuff.

Those of us who are psychotic about submitting clean copy (myself included) cringe at this
prevailing state of affairs.

 

Again, where has Simmons said he doesn't care about facts being right? He put up a whole webpage devoted to tracking errors in his book. Yell at him for those mistakes, but then acknowledge that he very publicly put up a place to correct them, which would seem to indicate he cares about them.

And going back to the Echoing Green. Here's Prager's own site, where he lists errors found by readers, which, in fact, isn't all inclusive since it doesn't include the ones I mentioned about SJU.

http://joshuaprager.com/echoing-green/errata/index.php

Mac said it best, there are mistakes and then there are "mistakes mistakes." The site's had both, and ideally wouldn't have either. Everyone acknowledges that. I'm just not sure how that becomes Simmons doesn't care about facts.

 

I think the money the site is making and the quality of the writing staff only further the view that there needs to be stronger copy editing. You're bringing in all this money and obviously paying your writers well, but you can't afford to spend $100,000-$150,000 a year combined on two or three really good copy editors?

When I see things like the 48-1 or many of the errors noted in the Deadspin posts on a small blog, I push right past them. When I see them on a MSM site like Grantland, which boasts a nice bankroll and apparently already makes money, then I get pissed off. The facts ARE a big deal, especially since many of the people reading about Novak Djokovic on Grantland probably aren't reading about him anywhere else.

The fact that he wrote an entire column about a game that didn't exist and didn't even have the diligence to go to hockey-reference.com suggest something about his attention to details and investment in factual accuracy.

I would put big money on that mistake never getting past any of the copy editors I work with. I would also bet that our columnists would check before writing something like that.

 

He hasn't said as much. Forget his book. He's EIC of a site full of bad facts. I'm inferring, then, that he doesn't care.

 

Helluva inference.

 

Well, he's an editor-in-chief who really doesn't have much experience on the editing side. His site employs high-caliber journalists, and he may have naively assumed that high-caliber journalists don't need airtight copy editing. Turns out everyone does.

Grantland is four months younger than my nephew, who just learned how to sit up. Simmons and the rest of the staff still have a chance to create a better editing chain and create a method for displaying corrections. I'd be surprised if it wasn't in the works right now.

 

Well, fiddle, I meant Salon.com in my post up above, when talking about how websites deal with errors.

Pretty much pegs the ol' irony meter there, as we were talking about catching errors.

 

Good catch. And you didn't even need Deadspin to knock you over the head with it.

 

The most egregious error on Grantland was Simmons' own.

 

Mr Womack,

I've had "corrections" inserted into a couple of my books by over-zealous editors that turned out to be just plain wrong. I've corrected things in edits and page proofs that somehow were missed by copy clerks and weren't reflected ultimately on the page. I've made a couple of gaffes in a-season-in books focused on unfolding events--stuff happens when writing 140,000 words over a seven-month spell and having to cleave it down to 90,000 on crushing deadline. Spelling of a name, a year out of whack. If you have the luxury of writing a bio over five years (Leavy's Mantle let's say) those mistakes are less forgivable than stuff done on such a tight turn-around.

YHS, etc

 

Uh, can anybody confirm that Simmons' NBA column was actually up on the site on Friday?

Says it was posted on July 8, but I thought I looked at the main page on Saturday night and I didn't see that.

I'm sure I'm just confused, but thought I'd ask.

 

I read it on Friday night at around 6.