Headline too hot to handle

I often tell students that good headline writers have dirty minds. Headlines often have double meanings that their authors did not intend. The headline at right, which ran recently in Greeley's Tribune, proves my point.

"UNC prof works to get boys hot about reading," might have seemed innocuous enough to the person writing it, but readers unfamiliar with the story under the headline could easily infer a double meaning.

This point is particularly poignant in light of recent news from the University of Northern Colorado, where a theater professor was arrested and charged with unlawful sexual contact with a child and sexual exploitation of children after he was accused of videotaping young men urinating in his house. The professor is on indefinite paid suspension and is banned from campus. I have no comment on the professor's case.

One way to avoid double meanings in headlines is to make sure several editors read them before they are published.

King Soopers update

The higher-ups at King Soopers must read this blog. Either that, or they hired a copy editor. The billboards visible off Sixth Avenue in Denver and Lakewood now read correctly:

The freshest produce ... every day!

You see, we can change the world.

In case you missed it, see the erroneous billboard in my earlier post.

Do you see what I see?

Copy editors don't just edit stories. They are supposed to edit every bit of news that goes into the publication. This includes headlines, informational graphics and even turn lines, the instructions that tell people where to go for the rest of the story. You would not believe how often those things are WRONG. Some editors are particularly picky. When I was a sports copy editor, I used to add up the numbers in the box scores and call the Associated Press when they didn't make sense. As you might imagine, they loved hearing from me on deadline.

Another thing that copy editors are SUPPOSED to edit is the cut lines. These are the words that go under or next to the photographs -- what most people refer to as "captions." Cut lines are important because many people look at the pictures before reading the story, and many don't even read the story. That's why you have to identify people fully in cut lines.

I always tell students that they should NEVER, under any circumstances, write cut lines without viewing the photo. This tip would have helped with the photo/cut line combination at right. The photo is headlined "August 2: Nationals @ Pirates," and the cut line reads as follows:

Josh Willingham strokes an RBI double off Pirates pitcher Jesse Chavez in the eighth inning.

It's a photo from Major League Baseball's official Web site. You can clearly see that the back of the batter's shirt says "Cedeno." If you know baseball pretty well, you will see right away that the batter is wearing a Pirates uniform. So why does the cut line refer to him as "Josh Willingham," and why does it say that he is hitting off a Pirates pitcher?

A good copy editor, and a good photographer for that matter, would have looked at the photo and noticed that it wasn't Willingham. Then he or she would have gone to the Pirates Web site and checked on Cedeno. The last step would have been to check the box score, also available at the team's Web site, to find out who the pitcher was and what team he played for.

Guess what? I checked it. Took me about two minutes. It turns out that shortstop Ronny Cedeno, number 13, hit a homer on Aug. 2, off pitcher Collin Balester of the Washington Nationals. He did not have a double, but he did drive in two runs. Josh Willingham also played that day. He played left field for the Nationals, and he hit a home run, but not off Jesse Chavez. He hit a double off Chavez, who pitched 1.2 innings for the Pirates . Oops.

The moral of the story? Check everything. And if you're writing a cut line, don't forget to look at the photo.

Your billboard is wrong ... every day

TO: King Soopers marketing director
FROM: The Cranky Copy Editor
DATE: Aug. 8, 2009
RE: Misspelling in your billboard

The offending billboard reads as follows:

King Soopers
The freshest produce ... everyday

You should have used "every day." Here's a hint from "The Media Writer's Handbook" by George T. Arnold: If you can substitute "each" for "every," use two words.

I hope your next billboard will be better edited. Perhaps you would like to hire one of my former students. Many are looking for jobs.

Where have all the fact-checkers gone?

One of the most important jobs of a copy editor is fact checking. The New York Times must need some new copy editors. Seven errors in a story about Walter Cronkite? Uncle Walt must be rolling in his grave. Clark Hoyt, the paper's public editor, discussed the problem in this week's column.

This is really depressing to me. When I worked at the copy desk of the Indiana Daily Student, my college paper, we checked EVERY name. Does anyone do that anymore? Is fact checking "so last century"? If so, that's pretty sad. Reader comments would be appreciated.