Newsroom Smackdown

If you ever wanted to understand the distinction between editors and reporters, here you go:

A couple of minutes ago, I was negotiating with an editor on a headline. I was feeling a little tabloidy, so I asked him to take the “g” off the end of the word “hanging.” You know, so it would read: “hangin’”.

“It’s a little 'New York Posty,' I know,” I told him. “Can we do that?”

Ever snappy, the editor replied: “It’s our world and we create it.”

Then, in the jaunty parlance of our daily newsroom, a reporter offered: “I’m a constant victim of circumstance, myself.”

[Technorati tags: reporters, editors]