From The Copy Desk

Print journalism has a long, inglorious history of tin-eared changes rendered by copy desks, resulting in embarrassed writers left to protest (usually to little effect) that what got printed really, really, really isn't what they meant. (If Blather had a copy desk, by the way, those three reallys would have become one, which would be technically correct but less zippy. This is one of the reasons why Blather doesn't have a copy desk.) My favorite of these stories -- maybe apocryphal, but hey, who cares -- involves the Newsweek writer who described an upscale women's school as "tony Bennett College," and sent the story off, proud of his little pun. The copy desk upper-cased the "t," which resulted in a reference to "Tony Bennett College." Here's the latest example, from L.A. Observed: The LA Times' Mark Swed calls the Richard Straus opera "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" an "incomparably glorious and goofy pro-life paean," meaning that it's a work which comes down exuberantly on the side of life in the great cosmic debate. The phrase ends up in the paper as -- wait for it -- "an incomparably glorious and goofy anti-abortion paean." Swed is understandably steamed, and demands a correction. He gets two. Footnote: As of this writing, the original (i.e., bad and erroneous) version remains on the LAT website, right next to an explanatory note.

Comments

[volunteer copy editor]

Bill - Love it! Love it!

Great stuff. Just a few nips and tucks here, the meat of which follows. Could you get back to us on the sourcing? Tx.

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Print journalism has a long, glorious history of eagle-eyedchanges rendered by copy desks, resulting in crybaby writers left to protest that what got printed really isn't what they meant. (Blather doesn't have a copy desk, except when a volunteer copyedtor steps in to save the day. Could be a budgetary matter.) My favorite of these stories involves the Newsweek [could we geta better source here, Bill?] writer who described an upscale women's school as "Tony Bennett College," and sent the story off, proud of his little pun. The copy desk upper-cased the "T," which resulted in a reference to "Tony Bennett College."
[/excerpt]