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August 20, 2007
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.
Posted by Jan Freeman at 08:55 PM
