tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-816670082463785972.post8785771993304598584..comments2019-09-21T20:02:53.730-04:00Comments on Real World Media: The World Needs a Good EditorSUSAN OLDERhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832786344211302901noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-816670082463785972.post-8262605029637101272011-05-15T03:07:58.175-04:002011-05-15T03:07:58.175-04:00Hi. It's nice to hear from you. Unfortunately,...Hi. It's nice to hear from you. Unfortunately, this topic is just as relevant as it was last March. Therefore, there was no harm in waiting. I cringe at your examples. 'Tricko also hits the nail on the head with the things that drive him crazy. However, I honestly don't think it's a case of experienced editors growing lazy. I really don't, although I do know some lazy young editors. I think there are far too few seasoned editors in newsrooms these days and we're starting to see the fallout. I wrote so much in response to you that I turned it into a blog post -- here and on DisplacedJournalists.com. Thanks for the nudge. I need to write more. -- SusanSUSAN OLDERhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832786344211302901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-816670082463785972.post-60684603169472975092011-05-14T19:48:43.536-04:002011-05-14T19:48:43.536-04:00Let's see, 'tricko asked to be pardoned fo...Let's see, 'tricko asked to be pardoned for posting more than 3 months after Susan's original posting. Well, here I am almost a year after 'tricko. Hey, anybody there/here? Let's talk pet peeves. Good golly, Miss Molly! Does anybody know how to use an apostrophe? Stores advertise plural items with apostrophe-s! But I have a lot more fun with the poor choice of words. I have a bushel basket full of gems I collected during my 27 years with a great wire service. I am now sharing them with my current staff of reporters. Two recent ones:<br />TEL AVIV, June 12 (UPI) – The U.S. administration believes Israel’s Ben Gurion University is involved in developing nuclear bombs, but the university says (Thursday) the claim “doesn’t have an atom of truth.”<br />and<br />From UPI story out of Moscow, quoting Soviet Foreign Minister spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov on Soviet-Israeli talks: “Israel has stated that it is prepared to put the question of Soviet Jews on the front burner.”The Good, the Bad, and the Uglyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13588091654271458477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-816670082463785972.post-50699608211520176162010-06-22T17:45:19.381-04:002010-06-22T17:45:19.381-04:00Ooooh, ouch. Those examples of bad editing you jus...Ooooh, ouch. Those examples of bad editing you just gave make my brain hurt. I'm glad you read it. I don't write on these blogs much. I actually wrote that for DisplacedJournalists.com, but I thought I might as well post it here, too. I have no idea whether the USAT desk still does a good job, but you and I do remember the days when I swear 15 people (easily) read each story before it made its way up to the satellite. You know, it's funny, you see these errors day after day, and suddenly you've seen one too many. That's what happened when I wrote this. I had seen enough. Do you know about "Fit to Print," our forthcoming documentary? SusanSUSAN OLDERhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832786344211302901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-816670082463785972.post-14382598520394323112010-06-22T17:30:08.244-04:002010-06-22T17:30:08.244-04:00Pardon my posting a comment more than THREE MONTHS...Pardon my posting a comment more than THREE MONTHS after you published this, Susan, but you know how it goes: Too much to see, read, do, and not enough time to catch nearly enough of it, not even the good stuff.<br /><br />But now that I'm here and I've read this, may I simply say thanks for raising a voice for simple, basic editing? As a daily reader of the NYT, I'm astounded how often I run across errors there. I know I get the national dead-tree edition, which goes out earlier and maybe more hastily with some stories, but every newspaper faces that deadline dilemma, and the NYT has a LOT more resources to deal with this.<br /><br />Somehow, there's either a newer generation of copy deskers that never got schooled in this attention to detail, or those who know better have slacked off as they float (barely) in an industry that is circling the drain.<br /><br />I agree with you, BTW, about USAT. It may have a lot of faults, but copy editing isn't one of them -- though the desk DID once infamously change the pronoun gender of someone I'd quoted, solely on the belief that Paige HAD to be a female name, not a male one. But I digress . . . <br /><br />Here are some peeves, frequently encountered:<br />"None" as plural . . . "media" as singular (and "media" without the modifier "news" where it refers, obviously, to such) . . . "their" as singular (in lieu of "his or her" or simply rewriting around it; I mean, honestly!) . . .<br /><br />I could go on with many more, but I'll spare you. You see them daily. So do I. Maybe we missed our chance to stay at it long enough as reporters to "retire" to the copy desk and crack the whip!<br /><br />Keep up the vigilance . . .'trickohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02727039462366437554noreply@blogger.com