Why a Good Editor Should Have a Dirty Mind

Today at Poynter:

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/138264/apple-you-need-a-dirty-mind-to-be-an-editor-in-this-business/

Quite a graphic.

 

Be sure to click the link to Mr. Apple's blog for even funnier stuff.

 

Sort of like when one of my colleagues keeps using the term "facial" in photo captions about blocked shots, and filthy-minded me changes it every time.

 

It takes a dirty mind to produce a clean newspaper, as I've heard many times. Came in particularly handy with a 65-year-old female boss who never married and whose only significant other was her dog.

 

And apparently not you, Terrier...

 

A few years ago, we had an all-star basketball doubleheader, boys' game and a girls' game, each matching public school players vs. private school players. For the story on the boys' game, one of my colleagues wrote this headline: Public school boys take out privates.

Needless to say, I changed it. But not before I walked around the newsroom with a copy of it to let everyone get a good laugh.

 

Was it this guy?

 

Only thing better would have been to have left out the L in public.

 

Indeed.

 

What is it about those weather maps??

http://picchore.com/funny/weathermap-dong/

http://www.snopes.com/photos/risque/weathermap.asp

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/201132/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/weather-map-phallus_n_814820.html

 

Years ago I wrote a headline on a USC football end-of-year article that read "Smith's Trojans endure a season of ups and downs."

Fortunately one of the guys in paste up (remember them) caught it and we changed it.

 

Did anyone give you a good ribbing for it?