Where Are All the Editors?
All of these stupid tweets, embarrassing emails, and ill-timed comments by “journalists” and writers are emblematic of a new-media culture that has turned its back on editors.
I call this the “Golden Egg” mentality. My ideas are so important, they have to be laid immediately.
All writers need editors. Hurling “content” against a blog wall—or posting a job-related quip on Twitter—is the dangerous edge of this new journalistic culture. We have too quickly abandoned a century of journalistic standards and traditions. Like most traditions, its constraints have evolved for good reason. Editors are the guardians of those traditions.
Writers are proud of their words. Sometimes, we can get carried away by the beauty of our delicately woven prose. Editors keep our facts, our grammar, and our egos in check.
Good editors know the difference between “reign” and “rein,” but they also read copy with a skeptic’s eye. Their job is to save us—and our employers—from embarrassment.
Editors preserved my reputation as a journalist more times than I can possibly count. One crusty old New York City tabloid editor once said to me, “You don’t want to write that. It makes you look stupid.” I don’t remember what I had written, but I was likely fawning over someone who didn’t deserve it, humiliating someone needlessly, or reporting something I hadn’t sourced properly.
Sometimes, when an editor passed judgment on something I wrote, I wouldn’t even get an explanation. A paragraph that I thought was clever (always dangerous) would simply have disappeared by the time the paper came out.
Certainly, I’ve had bad editors. I have had errors inserted into my copy. All writers have a horror story or two like this. But, on balance, editors have done way more to help me than hurt me. I thank my lucky stars that Facebook and Twitter weren’t around when I was working. If they had been, I might be living in Istanbul myself. Not because I would be covering international affairs for high profile publications, or studying the martial arts, or writing spy books, but because I would be escaping some mortifying professional or personal controversy of my own making.
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Comments :
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Three chairs, Ursula! The glutt of of ill-enformed and un-edited writeing on the internet is a abomanation. It's truly an embarasment for those of us who try to up-hold jurnalistic standards. I would welcome editing if I ever needed any, tho I think too that I will have none for each.
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
I agree, Ursula - but one small point that doesn't detract from your message: bloggers can has editors, as they say on the internets, if they just imagine their worst enemy reading the post. The type of reader who not only twists the points and puts the worst possible spin on every argument, but leaps on silly little errors as if they invalidate the argument, or the author's ability to make it.
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
I'm sorry. I meant to say "though."
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
I find this post rather gratifying. And here I thought all writers hated their editors...
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Yes, James, of course you are correct. However, there are probably only a few very talented, very disciplined humans that can do this (you!). As an example, I read this post over about 50 times -- and had my husband do it a few times, too -- but the brilliant Diane Ellis snared an error for me already. One pair of eyes, two pairs of eyes, and a decent brain or two isn't always enough. And the problem is, most people think they can do it themselves. Hubris is certainly a piece of it. And, Pat Sajax? Your the best.
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
On a serious note, more and more of what we're exposed to will be unedited and unchecked. We've all seen the frightening speed with which information--good or bad, true or false, accurate or misleading--can be spread. It's easy to say that consumers need to be more discerning and even more skeptical; however, very few people understand the importance of editing. In fact, I would venture to guess that most readers don't ever consider the process. For them, an unedited story--except for the obvious typos and grammatical errors--looks pretty much like an edited one. This poses a tremendous challenge for those who take journalistic standards seriously.
Jul '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
"I thank my lucky stars that Facebook and Twitter weren’t around when I was working."
Was working? Writing for Ricochet isn't working? You do this for free? If not, you need an editor.
May '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Take it from a full time freelancer -- pressure to be on Twitter is coming from publications! Editors at the most established places I write, like The Atlantic, and the least established, like the startup True/Slant, are uniformly thrilled to have a writer who has built a small audience of devoted fans (especially fans that include bloggers), and while I got those particular gigs irrespective of my Twitter followers, "social media currency" has certainly helped me to write at other places. I've never had a publication discourage me from doing unedited writing. Two publications where I am a columnist -- Forbes and The Daily Beast -- tease my Twitter handle alongside every piece that I write.
I got my first gig as a blogger because at the newspaper where I then worked, I was one of the reporters they most trusted to write without an editor. I've yet to Tweet anything terribly embarrassing, and I am conscious of the fact that several of my editors follow my feed. Still, this business of firing people over Tweets seems absurd to me.
Also, I don't think my occasional ungrammatical Tweets somehow make my polished essays any more or less credible.
May '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Ursula didn't say she didn't hate her editors. Just that she needed one on occasion. Kind of like the way I view colonoscopies.
Jun '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Gr8 R-tickle Ursula!
I, 2, think editors R gr8 and use dem when I can. You R so rite when you rite 2 pears of i’s R better then 1. & I certainly enjoyed your write of passage story, maid me feel like a Johnny come L8ly.
As for the rein in Spain, which stays mostly on the plane, well that’s where I left my horse. So th-air!
Jun '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
In my current vocation, I am frequently called upon to ensure that our documentation and supporting proposal work is crisp, clear and free of errors. In that role, I serve both as technical writer and editor. Indeed, I'm anal enough about it to drive the original authors crazy.
Yet in my own writing, I find that no matter how many times I proofread and cross-check, I can't see my own errors quite so well. Yet I labor anyway, out of pride and fear of embarrasment.
To paraphase an old axiom: "Writer, edit thyself!"
Jun '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
The first edit is properly known as a revision. The second edit should be done 24 hours later with fresh eyes. A third attempt is largely useless because the brain has already incorporated the story as a narrative. Once the brain hits "print" there is no way back. I thank you all for sharing what we have all experienced in practice. It's just the way things are. No need for apologies.
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Finding errors in my Ricochet work takes just a moment. Unfortunately, the "moment" always occurs after I click the "post" button. Why is that?
Jun '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
A quick insight on the four types of mind from a teacher's perspective. Ace: fast, deep and insightful. Lileks comes to mind. Deuce: fast but shallow. It's a common condition amongst kids with ADD. Trey: deep but slow. They get there eventually, but these brains need more processing time. And the last: slow and shallow. Not much hope.
Thanks for tolerating me.
Jun '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Speaker Pelosi would approve. You have to click "post" to find out what's in it. What other way is there?
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Yes, yes, yes Ursula -- I couldn't agree more. Good editors deserve so much more credit than they get. Brian Anderson and Ben Plotinsky at City Journal, for example, have done so much to save me from embarrassment, curb my tendency to babble on forever, and spare me from saying things that sound clever to me at the time but are in fact extremely ill-advised. But that said, editors of their quality are rare. Very often, alas, as you've also experienced, an editor will send my copy to the press with painful, pointless errors inserted.
By the way, Ursula, while it's true that I'm in Istanbul because I'm covering international affairs for high profile publications, studying the martial arts, and writing spy books, I'm also here because I'm escaping mortifying professional or personal controversies of my own making. It's not for nothing that I feel a bit of sympathy for Octavia Nasr, you know?
May '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Ricochet readers may be interested in knowing that Brian Anderson -- an excellent editor indeed -- has as glowing an opinion of Ms. Berlinski's work. When I interviewed him for The Atlantic, I asked him about his favorite City Journal pieces, and drawing on a truly impressive archival trove, the articles he named included pieces by two Ricochet contributors, Ms. Berlinksi and Andrew Klavan. (Scroll down to question five for the links.)
May '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
I prefer to see a mix of both edited and unedited journalism. Let one person write like a lawyer and another like Mark Twain. Let one person stick to mainstream questions and let another pose outrageous ideas. We need the full spectrum.
I know first-hand how restraints can inspire, but there's also something to be said for the child running naked and yelling.
My dad talks like an old Chevelle on a cold morning. You know it will be worthwhile, but that doesn't make the wait any easier.
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
Conor Friedersdorf: I got my first gig as a blogger because at the newspaper where I then worked, I was one of the reporters they most trusted to write without an editor. I've yet to Tweet anything terribly embarrassing, and I am conscious of the fact that several of my editors follow my feed. Still, this business of firing people over Tweets seems absurd to me.
Also, I don't think my occasional ungrammatical Tweets somehow make my polished essays any more or less credible. · Jul 8 at 7:12pm
Writers now have competing pressures -- to be witty, quick, ironic, noticeable, flip, to dispatch every clay pigeon tossed up by a culture pandemic with pigeons; but also to self-edit, to self-moderate, to be reticent at the right time, to pussyfoot expertly, to pick battles, to avoid perils, to besmirch rarely, to duck blame, to satisfy spectral overseers. This is a serious pickle, is it not? And yet it now appears to be the cost of doing business. Possibly, this is the internet imitating life.
May '10
Re: Where Are All the Editors?
I still liked ~Paules' streaming thoughts while he listened to VDH. It was even funny that he all but announced at the beginning "I am now going to continue to drink heavily and blog while I listen to this podcast...twenty eight comments to follow." I think calling us all punks came later. What a daredevil. I loved it.