After reading “The Existential Copy Editor,” I agree with the fact that the copy desk isn’t treated with enough respect or understanding. We’re the lowest of the paid; the last afterthought; at the bottom of the Totem pole.
I can’t help but to turn to my experience at the Alligator. Writers have, in the past, thanked me profusely for fixing a fact error, and once or twice a section editor has told me they think I’ve done a good job at editing an article. But when a typo or error gets through, then it’s all the copy desk’s fault and we’re back to square one. All of a sudden, especially to our top editor, the copy desk is a loathsome creature. Again and again I have written about this frustration. In fact, it’s almost enough for me to get out of copy editing.
It’s frustrating. The other day, a section editor blew off a recommendation of how to punctuate a quote so it could made sense. It angered me that editors could choose not to listen to the copy desk when it’s our job to make those recommendations.
According to the article, “in 1996, Merrill challenged journalists to reject a herd mentality and embrace the freedom and responsibility valued so highly by existential philosophers.” Existentialism, according to the article, values “intensity, as manifested in acts of free choice, individual self-assertion, personal love, or creative work”
So I suppose copy editors have to just ignore the disrespect and try to shine in the middle of an occasionally negative environment.
I do think copy editors have to try harder to earn respect. An editor at a newspaper recently told my friend, “reporters are a dime a dozen. Get into copy editing.” I think if we embrace our job and become good at it, we can earn that fulfillment and be respected at work.
Since I argue that copy editors can one day coexist with the rest of the newsroom, I do understand the finger-pointing to an extent. It is our job, after all, to catch these mistakes. I think back to reporting class, when writers were so terrified of getting that 50-point reduction for a fact error that they obsessively checked all the facts.
I wish all writers could be as anal. But then, where would be copy desk go if writers all of a sudden became excellent grammarians and headline-writers? They need us. And we need to excel in order to be the last line of defense for our newspapers.
I just wish the newsroom acknowledged how much they need us.
