… become an accepted level of professionalism in a once-great craft?
I truly hope my colleagues in The Bug‘s Media Glass House offices on mezzanine level 4 don’t mind my taking over just for once a topic du manyment jours that’s rightly become a bit of an obsession for them.
Before addressing the question posed above on their behalf, I want to recall a saying I religiously followed as to exams in my tertiary education days. Namely, 50 per cent is a pass mark; 51 per cent is a waste of time.
Which is true, of course. I could have ended up with a degree applying that theory except I misjudged my night-before study efforts just by a whisker and ended up in my early 20s without any real qualifications which meant my only option was journalism. (Subs, I don’t know exactly how to fix this due to the nature of my first-person columns but could we somehow get rid of some of the I and Mys above? I’m starting to sound like Hugh)!
Back now, to the question posed above. NO! Getting things half-right is bloody shoddy journalism, a view I share with the bitter, washed-up hacks who throw their column together.
Unfortunately, today’s (Saturday’s) edition of The Sydney Morning Herald shows the “journalists” who “sub-edit” there reckon getting things half-right is fucking well good enough.
The proof of this? Four stories from the pretend cover on PAGE 3 flowed inside the book. Some sub or subs got things right with two of those spills and said the stories originated on PAGE 3! Another sub or subs decided the two stories they were “working” on originated on PAGE 1.
Those at the MGH would love a buck for every time over a very long campaign to bring the SMH and its sister Sunday to heel that they’ve pleaded with “subs” there when they plop their lazy arses down for a night shift to just fucking check how the edition they are working on is folioed. The craft of journalism #101.
So, if my MGH colleagues also don’t mind me stealing yet another of their well-worn graphic ideas, here’s one updated for today ..
Ditto for the bar fridge magnets our MGH team has sent the SMH subs too many times to mention over the journey.
The other reason for asking to take over this topic just this one time is that my MGH compilers’ reputation as effective teachers of some of the quaint old rules of the once proud craft of sub-editing has once again been shattered, and they are quite teary and emotional at the moment. Nevertheless they refuse to give up and we should all be very proud of that!
From The Bug files just a week ago…
Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!
Follow The Bug Online on WordPress.com
The Bug Online 