What he learned in the newsroom

John McIntyre, who blogs on language and editing at the Baltimore Sun, marks his 21st anniversary there with a roundup of things he has learned about newspaper culture. The list will have print journalists intoning "Amen, brother," but readers should also find it amusing and maybe enlightening. Some highlights:

A reporter, seeing a copy editor’s deletion of an adjective or prepositional phrase, will react as if a chapter has been ripped from the Pentateuch.

The dumber the comic strip, the fiercer the loyalty.

To a reporter, a 50-inch story is, by definition, twice as good as a 25-inch story.

The reader who spots the error you [the editor] let into print after you caught 19 others will write to ask if anyone on the staff has been to college.

But one of them stopped me:

No reader cares as much as a thin belch about how hard you worked on the story or photo or headline.

The main point is clear: You don't get credit for effort, only for results. But what the heck is a "thin belch"? Google turns up enormous belches, appreciative belches, loud belches, even a few fat belches, but no thin belches. I have asked the author for enlightenment; check for an update in a day or two.