'Crowdsource' Copy Editing

There's a new tool* out for group editing of your blog if you want it. It's a version, I suppose, of what goes on in the group edits at Wikipedia, though, I would hope, with less rancor.

Fuddy duddy alert: I do wish there were some value placed on expertise these days, and more interest in accuracy BEFORE publication.

*New to me, but not brand new.

Some Tea Party Questions

The New York Times raises a good question about the ability of the Tea Party to survive when the economy recovers because many of the members'  participation seems driven by unemployment. (I think it's actually driven by worse urges, but that's a discussion for another day.) But I've been struck by something else, based on, unfortunately, personal knowledge of the unemployment system. And I could be completely off base if none of them are actually collecting unemployment benefits but still, something seems off, especially with those below retirement age.

 a. How can people who are unemployed afford to travel around from state to state joining protests? Assuming that at least some people are doing that and, based on some of the people interviewed, many seem to be hitting multiple protests. So is someone funding their travel? Is this all Freedomworks or something else? Is money flowing under the table? It seems to me that it's time to stop focusing on signs and move on to deeper exploration of this phenomenon.

 b. Some states impose restrictions on the ability to collect benefits. You have to be available for work, and that means you can't be traveling out of state.

 c. Are some of them getting paid? Are they really all volunteers?

This Is What Changes Look Like

 

This is President Obama and Jon Favreau  going over a speech.  Everyone needs an editor.

Another Fake Memo

Coming just a few days after an apparently fake memo about the Democrats and the healthcare reform bill made its way onto several major websites, including Politico, another bogus email  fooled some more news organizations today.

So is anyone checking anything or is the rush to have stories first  trumping commonsense and responsibility to readers? AKA good journalism.

From TPM:

Medea Benjamin of Code Pink tells TPMmuckraker that the left-wing activist group orchestrated the bogus AIPAC press release calling for a settlement freeze that got picked up by several major news organizations today.

Benjamin says she and a colleague stood outside the AIPAC conference hall today dressed in suits and handed out copies of the statement to confused attendees.

Bracketology and Me

And to think that I started out as a sportswriter. I shoulda been better than this.

First, I apparently neglected to save my picks on The New York Times NCAA men's bracket, and it would have been a tough one anyway since I had decided this year to stick mostly with going with the higher seed. Not all, but I would have missed most of the upsets (Not Ohio v Georgetown, though). 

And on the other bracket, I forgot to fill out a few choices, because I was busy following a few teams through to the finals and simply forgot the earlier, lower rungs in other  regions. 
 This explains why, in Nate Silver's 367-player bracket, I'm ranked 359th. And 12 players, ranked 367th, didn't bother to fill anything out.

2 Interviews

I'm all for asking tougher questions.  And the deference shown people in power is pretty ridiculous. But is this the way to do it?
Compare and contrast.

The Ayes of March

Headlines on political stories and columns are frequently bashed by one side or the other, so it's nice to see one referred to as "stellar." Column by Paul Krugman; kudos from Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo; headline, surprise, unknown at this point.

New Language Honcho at the Times

The New York Times magazine has named Ben Zimmer as its new language columnist, succeeding the late William Safire.

Zimmer wrote about the trendy use of the word "optics" March 5 in the Times.

Why We Need Editers

One mistake, and a bunch of comments about "grammar," well worth the read. The defense of copy editors is nice.

CNN's Appalling Choice of Words

Headline writers have often been a little too quick to seize on the latest catch phrase and put them to work in inappropriate ways.

I wonder how many headlines employed "Where's the Beef?" on zoning, political, sports or feature stories, or "I was for it before I was against it" and any of the dozens of other phrases.

But this pickup and the echoing of a politically driven charge may have set a record for pure speed and thoughtlessness. When someone at CNN noticed, the chyron was changed, but not all that much: It went from "Dept. of Jihad?" to "Al Qaeda 7?" to "Are Justice Dept. lawyers disloyal?" accompanied by comments about whether a "loyalty test" should be required at the Justice Department.  My most charitable intrepretation is that this is what happens when someone falls in love with a phrase or concept, one that seems so exciting and bound to stir the audience, but doesn't think about the impact or consequences. We specialize in words, people. Let's find our own.

Looting v. Survival

  This is a tough call. Stories about the earthquake and tsunami in Chile have repeatedly referred to "looters" breaking into stores to get food and other supplies. Of course, some of them are going for less-essential items, like electronics. But what's the line on doing what you need to feed your family and stealing? UPDATED: Donald McNeil, ex-copy editor and now reporter at The New York Times, examines the moral ambiguity of looting.

 That's why this story is so scary. First, we all recall stories about the people of New Orleans being blocked from crossing through other communities after Hurricane Katrina. Now this sheriff is training and arming citizens to thwart terrorists, but explicitly mentions protecting food supplies. So al-Qaeda might try to clean out the yogurt aisle? Or all the regular folks going to have to starve while the incredibly heavily armed citizens chosen by the sheriff are taken care of?  And it's called Operation Exodus, as in, you know, one group of people flees from one place for safety in another.

Editing at the Speed of...Oh, No Editing.

It should come as a surprise to  no one to learn that magazines often do less or even no copy editing on their web material.  (And this isn't limited to magazines.) I don't know why companies do this.

The consistency of this practice would seem to indicate that publications are more interested in preserving a well-edited print record instead of ensuring the web version is clean. It wouldn't seem to be just money, otherwise publications could shift people from print to web.

So it would seem to be something about how they view the value of the web, and a prevailing sense that web copy can quickly be fixed, with no one the wiser. And that it is often writers, not editors, who have established sites.