# People who introduce errors into my work **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 16, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811 "2006-02-16T16:11:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/1 "2006-02-16T16:11:36Z")
I work in TV, which is a team sport from the top to the bottom. Nobody does anything on their own, but some people pull a lot more weight than others. As a writer, I pull a hell of a lot of weight. I make anchors look and sound smart. I tell producers if we should run with a piece or kill it. I interview guests to find out if they have anything interesting to say. I also tell the graphics people what to put up on the screen. Want to know how to spell someone’s name, or that unusual city? Ask me. This morning I’m looking at a segment I worked on, and it’s really nice. The anchor and the guest were relaxed, they had chemistry going on, they were informative and entertaining. Everything about this piece screams ‘put me in your clip reel.’ Except some moron graphics operator decided to go with his own imaginary spelling of names. COCKFUCKER! I _email_ you the graphics list. All you have to do is cut and paste! And if you can’t do that, open up those things above your schnozz and LOOK at the fucking email I sent to see if what you typed matches what I typed. It’s not brain surgery, it’s not rocket science, it’s CHARACTER RECOGNITION! But noooo, you decide that’s too much work, so you put up a misspelled name SIX TIMES on national television. Why the fuck do you still have a job again? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/2 "2006-02-16T16:21:20Z")
[channeling Pontius Pilate]Stwike him, **Bawbawian** , vewy woughly! And thwow him to the floor, please.[/channeling Pontius Pilate] ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/3 "2006-02-16T16:25:52Z")
At least you weren’t interviewing Niger Innis. ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/4 "2006-02-16T16:58:11Z")
Ugh. The same thing happened to me when I was in college working on a journalism degree. I did some free stories for the local weekly to get some good stuff for my clip file and my editor ending up editing _in_ so many mistakes it was unusable. Not to mention that my source for one story called me and ended up giving me an earful about how I had gotten the ticket price wrong for an event she was hosting. Seems a typo had managed to get in there and the ticket price was given as $12 instead of $2. I checked the version of the story I had submitted and had it down correctly as $2. Thanks, editor. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/5 "2006-02-16T17:21:59Z")
Obviously, **Barbarian** , the time has come for this person to be promoted into management. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/6 "2006-02-16T17:58:08Z")
I share your pain. After repeated requests I typed a thoughtful piece for my worksite website. For no good reason it was retyped and appeared with multiple mistakes (under my name). :wally ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/7 "2006-02-16T18:52:46Z")
> [@](#): > > I make anchors look and sound smart. No mean feat, that. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/8 "2006-02-16T21:57:00Z")
This sort of thing is exactly why I ALWAYS keep a copy of the original. Then, when some asswipe changes it later, that same asswipe can’t blame me when someone else wants to know why it is now so fucked up. I can just produce my copy (with the time and date stamp) and say “That isn’t what I sent out”. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/9 "2006-02-17T01:04:49Z")
Time for a mea culpa. I was at Mrs. Blather’s store and saw that we had “complimentary” patterns. That couldn’t be right, so I put a note on the graphics designer’s chair saying that it should be “complementary”. I also decided I didn’t need to bother Mrs. Blather with this. 100 printed patterns later… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/10 "2006-02-17T16:41:56Z")
I’d strike him Qadgop, if I only knew who it was… ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/11 "2006-02-17T16:48:26Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > Time for a mea culpa. I was at Mrs. Blather’s store and saw that we had “complimentary” patterns. That couldn’t be right, so I put a note on the graphics designer’s chair saying that it should be “complementary”. I also decided I didn’t need to bother Mrs. Blather with this. 100 printed patterns later… :smack: Thankfully you don’t work at **Barbarian’s** TV station, Mr Blather. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/12 "2006-02-17T17:03:31Z")
I used to write for a music magazine. Probably the most significant article I ever did for them was a profile/interview of Robert Fripp, around the time he was reforming King Crimson in the early '90s. My editor managed to mangle the _very first word_ of the piece, so instead of describing Fripp as “professorial,” it had me calling him a “professional,” which kind of goes without saying… ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/13 "2006-02-18T09:53:49Z")
My best and biggest story in journalism school was fucked by a copy editor. i think j-school copy editors get bored and make changes for the sake of making changes. I had a full-width headline space, and i’d submitted three headlines to use and she ignored them all. the story was about the bells/chimes heard every hour on campus. since we didn’t have a bell tower i wondered where the sound came from and I got to talk to the guys in charge of the bell recording and go atop the 15-story library. It ended up sort of being a piece about the guy who “rang” the bell. it was my favorite story and i thought it was really clever (so did my profs) …and the stupid bitch copy editor gave it the lamest title you can imagine. I bet you know what it was. Yeah. “For Whom the Bell Tolls”…GAH!!! THE BELL TOLLS FOR THE, STUPID CUNT! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/14 "2006-02-18T13:32:44Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > COCKFUCKER! I read this as ‘CORNFUCKER!’ out of the corner of my eye. I think my version is funnier. Especially if you’re in Iowa. In other news, I could write a shell script more competent than that cornfucker. A _small_ shell script. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > THE BELL TOLLS FOR THE, STUPID CUNT! Add an E or remove the comma. So saith the Doper excopyeditor. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-introduce-errors-into-my-work/344811/15 "2006-02-18T13:40:31Z")
Gaudere’s Law 😉