Media: Gene Weingarten’s penis mighty indeed
My old sparring buddy Gene Weingarten penned this column in the wake of buyouts at the Washington Post:
This is a true fact: I’m writing this column the very week after dozens of copy editors left my newspaper through an early retirement buyout, and I have noticed no difference at all whatsoever in the quality, accuracy or readability of the product.
The inessentialness of copy editors is underscored by the advent of sophisticated spellchecking systems which have introduced a hole new level of error-free proofreading. No longer can we say that the editor’s penis mightier than the sword. The sword’s main foe is a computer now, and the computer is up to to the task.
It’s laugh-out-loud funny. Although fat old Jewish ladies might not think so.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Did you mean to say “pen is?”
June 21st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Irony is lost on some.
June 21st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Shouldn’t that be “sparring buddy,” Billy? I still do a bit of sporadic, unpaid, free-lance copy editing for PJStar.com.
Shortly after the Journal Star newsroom got its first spell-checking software, Rick Baker asked the managing editor if the paper couldn’t save some money by canning all the copy editors.
The irony is that over the past 35 years, copy editors have taken on more and more of the work formerly done by printers, stereotypers, proofreaders, photographers and artists, saving papers billions of dollars.
I’ve seen studies that show newsroom managerially ranks are filled disproportionately by ex-copy editors. The current managing editor, metro city editor and three of the last four night city editors at the Journal Star are former copy editors, as is the deputy opinion editor.
Among non-managers, the Cue editor, Sunday editor, Neighbors editor, arts reporter, religion reporter and assistant state editor are all people I worked with on the copy desk.
June 21st, 2008 at 2:38 pm
See? If I hadn’t fired my staff of copy editors, that mistake wouldn’t have slipped through.
Besides, Rick Bakers’ run-ins with copy editors (Hell, with co-workers in general) are legendary.
June 21st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
(That’s “Baker’s”; wanna beat me up?)
I believe the only co-worker to file charges against him is a former copy editor. Baker pleaded no contest.
June 21st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
This is too funny!