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Ummm, SI could you please stop screwing up?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Guybehindtheguy, Jul 12, 2007.

  1. broadway joe

    broadway joe Guest

    There's some truth to what you're saying, but I also believe that more errors -- the really sloppy, obvious kind -- get into SI these days than they once did. I think that's partly due to the staff cutbacks. The people who remain have heavier workloads, which causes them to be pressed for time, which means less attention to detail. The copy in SI used to be so closely checked and re-checked and re-re-checked that making one mistake like this in an issue would have been a big deal to them. Three blunders on one photo never would have made it into print.
     
  2. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I agree, and there is one more reason.

    Unlike just about every other sports print medium out there, SI actually has MORE editorial copy than they used to have.

    Now, we can argue all day how good it is, but it cannot be argued that there is simply more. More photos. More cutouts. More cutlines. More charts. More little detail items. A shortstop with 900 chances is almost always going to make more errors than one with 500 chances. Same goes for an editorial desk.
     
  3. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Unless the guy with 500 chances was John Gochnaur. Then all laws of probability are off.
     
  4. Central-KY-Kid

    Central-KY-Kid Well-Known Member

    But three errors by one player in one inning (or page in this case) rarely happens. Thus the reason why it is a big deal, BTE.
     
  5. The thing you have to remember now is they're going to press later and getting it out quicker than ever. There's a lot of late copy, and sometimes errors are going to slip through.
    But with that Heisman photo, I'm not even sure when that dinner was, over the weekend? Say it's taken on Saturday night, they don't go to press (I believe) until midnight on Mondays. So that's like 48 hours to get it right.
    Then again, we all make mistakes.
     
  6. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I don't deny that it's a big deal.

    I just deny that things like that "just didn't happen" in the good 'ol days.

    Heck, even The New York Times prints a dozen or more corrections every single day.
     
  7. clutchcargo

    clutchcargo Active Member

    Central-KY---you mentioned "three errors in one inning." Dodgers OF Willie Davis actually did that in the 1966 World Series against the Orioles. Unfortunately, I"m old enough to remember seeing it---at least I"m pretty sure it was all in the same inning. He did have three in the game, and I think two on the same play---fielding and then throwing, or some such.
     
  8. Central-KY-Kid

    Central-KY-Kid Well-Known Member

    Buckweaver to the white courtesy phone. Buckweaver, your presence is requested at the white courtesy phone ...
     
  9. Mighty_Wingman

    Mighty_Wingman Active Member

    This is a good point, as is the other point about SI having an increasingly large amount of copy coming in on late deadlines. But I've seen an increasingly large number of simple typos and errors in copy, as opposed to fact errors. That really shouldn't happen at a magazine like SI, and if it does happen, it's a sign the magazine higher-ups should invest in better copy editors.

    Here's an example, from this week's issue, in the Golf Plus story about the U.S. Senior Open:

    That's not going to show up on spellcheck, but any half-decent copy editor is going to catch that every time.
     
  10. mediaguy

    mediaguy Well-Known Member

    broadway joe, you remind me which year it was SI didn't make three mistakes. seems like every third issue has a reader calling them out on a mistake.
     
  11. Terence Mann

    Terence Mann Member

    If you go to SI.com's "Extra Mustard" section, you get:

    * Photo gallery of streakers crashing golf events
    * Which team has hotter celeb fans: Yanks or Red Sox?
    * Wily Mo's MySpace | Live-blogging Beckham's debut
    * Video: Amazing soccer tricks | Smokin' Jessica Biel


    I don't know what to say, except for wondering when the MILF tab will debut, and when our paper will start running stuff like this.
     
  12. e4

    e4 Member

     
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