Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Where have all the copy editors gone?

Maybe the Kansas City Star should hire back some of the copy editors they laid off.

The latest Kansas City Star copy editing goof is in a column by Barb Shelley in the KC Star's Midwest Voices.

Shelley's column -- "Sam Brownback's honorable vote" -- includes a 3 paragraph quote from Sam Brownback. But only one of the paragraphs is italicized to show it is a quote from Sen. Brownback. The other 2 Brownback paragraphs aren't italicized and look like they are Shelley's words.

In case the goof is changed, the original goof is preserved in the screen shot below. (Click to enlarge)


Hat tip (and screen shot credit) to John Altevogt
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20 comments:

Anonymous said...

KC Scar information:
Hearn Has a good piece on Jason Whitlock? “Pork Chop… dissed the broadcasting skills of Herm..”
I love it when someone else puts into print, my sentiments about a hoax of a sports reporter. A whole article read with comments, gets back to his firing from ESPN. “When ESPN tired of his need to bash his coworkers in print, he was quickly canned.”
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-OTC: Whitlock Passes On Draft To Burn Herm-

The front-runner for [biggest bust in the draft] lives in Kansas City.”
Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star
Comment:
“GH: I would agree with Whitlock’s above statement – but my finger is pointed not at Herm but at Jason. How can the [highest-paid newspaper columnist] in the history of The Kansas City Star, whose only real expertise is evaluating the NFL [and smoked meats,] file a column the day after the NFL draft that completely ignores the first draft of the Chiefs’ new management team? Inexcusable.”
http://www.kcconfidential.com/

Anonymous said...

Ummm....editors do not proofread bloggers stuff. Just like you don't have anyone proof reading your stuff.

This is not making an excuse for accidentally not italicizing a couple of paragraphs, but just to point out yet again your facts are wrong.

John Altevogt said...

Today's best insight on this column comes from our old friend at

http://www.bottomlinecom.com/kcnews/shellylaudsbrownback.html

where John Landsberg hits the nail directly on the head concerning the subject matter of Shelly's column. I'm so used to Shelly serving as the leading handmaiden to corruption in the KC media (a highly, highly competitive category amongst metro area media folks) that I blew by her usually ethically challenged commentary and the most obvious feature was the boo-boo on failing to properly quote Sen. Switchback.

Congratulations once again to John Landsberg for his usual insightful commentary.

John Altevogt said...

3:45 Thanks for providing an apologia for The Star's incompetence in putting out a professional product (either with regard to substance, or form).

Anonymous said...

There you go again, John. Everyone is corrupt except you, apparently.

Anonymous said...

Thank God we have John spending 100% of his time keeping humanity safe from mistakes!

Anonymous said...

There you go again, John. Everyone is corrupt except you, apparently.


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Oh no. There are lots of people who are not corrupt. Unfortunately none left at the KC Star, so I see how it would appear that way in your little world.

Anonymous said...

John, It seems you have a fan club. When the whackjobs write about another poster, you know you are too close to the truth for their tiny egos. Keep up the good work. Burn their asses once a day for good measure. I look for your posts!

Anonymous said...

It‘s called ‘crowd sourcing’ - Using online readers as editors. I don’t think old media dinosaurs will even make the transition to the net. Comparing a one person blog to a huge news source is insane, or just that far behind the curve.
Iceberg straight ahead, and
♫ The Band Played On ♫
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Ostrich says, “Ummm....editors do not proofread bloggers stuff. Just like you don't have anyone proof reading your stuff.”

John Altevogt said...

Yeah, everyone likes me. Here's Derek Donovan The Star's "reader's rep giving me a recommendation.

http://www.kansas-conservative-network.com/derek_goes_postal.mp3

This was actually the polite version. After I posted that he called up screaming obscenities and making threats. Sometime I'll post what he wrote about me on his blog.

Anonymous said...

John, when are you going to learn that fat, mean and stupid is no way to go through life?

Anonymous said...

Methinks Pork Chop or Three Wheels is looking into a mirror while keyboarding. They would know best about fat, mean and stupid being no way to go through life?
Who knew they were so helpful to others?

Anonymous said...

There you go again, John -- recycling (Derek Donovan, which you've repeated at least three times in the last three weeks), just like you did when you had a column in the Star. You had about four thoughts, and you kept recycling them. Maybe that's why your column was cancelled.

Anonymous said...

John, The postal Derek Donovan says he is a conservative.
Arlen Specter-like don’t you think?
Bwhahahaha

John Altevogt said...

7:46 Here let me repeat it again.

http://www.kansas-conservative-network.com/derek_goes_postal.mp3

If I gave a hoot what some troll thought I could also go back and find my answer to the same stupid comment about my former column when you posted it a couple of weeks ago, but since you're into history, go find it yourself.

John Altevogt said...

6:27 Fat, mean and stupid is actually a quite pleasant way to go through life. It makes me pretty oblivious to people like you who have no arguments, no information and utterly no reason to live except to annoy others who do.

John Altevogt said...

And here's a new Derek Donovan. This is an apology to he readers after he maliciously libeled a friend and myself on his blog. He then pulled both that posting and the "apology" below.

From Derek Donovan's blog at The Star before it was removed. Hmmm who was it that kept trying to revise history?????
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Apologies

Folks, I had a post up earlier today that was defensive and just unprofessional of me. I succumbed to the taunting of a little-known activist who's been calling me a Nazi and "Stalin" here for months. I had put up a long post explaining why I delete his/her comments -- and I should not have done that. It was inside baseball, of no interest to regular readers.

There is a small number of people whose complaints I don't take seriously because of misconduct. That should be an internal matter for me and the newsroom.

Sorry again for taking the bait and dragging anyone else into it. It was a bad, bad choice made in anger -- and was exactly what the person wanted.
Submitted by derekdonovan on January 5, 2009 - 4:37pm.

Kevin Gregory said...

To see fat mean and stupid, click here.

John Altevogt said...

MW: Do we really have two trolls following your blog, or is that just one loser responding to his own posts?

Kevin Gregory said...

Oooops, I just posted this comment on the wrong thread...

John when traffic is more than a couple hundred a day, I can't tell who is leaving comments.

With 3,700 hits today there is no way I can identify who is posting the goofy comments.