1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Your fault, OR, what are they paying those darned copy editors for?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by beardpuller, Feb 13, 2008.

  1. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    One thing to take into account. When you consider how many words, punctuation, facts, identities, it's amazing that more mistakes aren't made, either by the reporter, who is writing two stories and a high school roundup, or a copy editor who does layout/design and has photo captions, headlines, etc. to worry about too. Sometimes, we beat ourselves up for things that we cannot control. We have to remember that we're human too.

    It's like being a home-plate umpire. They call 250-300 pitches a night, but if they miss one, they catch hell for it. And they have to worry about safe/out calls at the plate too.
     
  2. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Hey, just be glad the subject of your story didn't <a href="http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/52289/">die before the story was printed</a>.

    But in your case ... that's up to you to stay on the ball about stories that are in the can, not the SE. Good on you for filing it early, but the responsibility's still yours.
     
  3. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    You put the records and stats in the story so when the copy editor is in the process of updating the stats, he can discover that you misspelled the kid's LAST NAME throughout the entire story.
     
  4. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    You have time to cover things?

    Anyhoo, a reporter puts it in, it's on the reporter. The reporter doesn't get a pass for not knowing spelling. That said, I hate it when I miss something, and I think most good copy editors have that viewpoint.
     
  5. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Having been on both sides, here's how it works:

    Reporter: "Dammit, I can't believe I screwed that up. Why didn't the desk catch it, though?!

    Copy editor: "SOB is lucky I caught the six other mistakes in his story."
     
  6. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    If I write a story and there's a mistake in it, it's on me. Simple as that.

    I have yet to work at a place where the desk isn't willing to help the writer fix a mistake.
     
  7. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    What if your reporter, err columnist is Mitch Albom?

    Then all the errors are on the copy desk? Right?
     
  8. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    My editor called me out on a spelling error in my story one day. From that point on, I ran spell check after she edited my work. On a daily basis she would miss 3-4 words. It was great.

    A few weeks later another reporter and I began a contest for who could put the most blatant error in a story and get a away with it.

    One night in a proof, I put a college football score in the high school scores list and she didn't notice. That was great.

    Especially since West Virginia and Lousiville are nowhere near our coverage area.

     
  9. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    How professional.
     
  10. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    It made my job tolerable for five minutes a day. What can I say?

     
  11. Riddick

    Riddick Active Member

    um, you're fired!
     
  12. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    Then maybe you should think about getting out of the business.

    Purposefully putting mistakes in the paper for your amusement is a bullshit act.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page