<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen: My real point is that such lack of worldview works the other way as well. Our fiftyish copy desk chief made a major goof the other day when he changed the named of Grammy-nominated singer Avril Lavigne to "April," believing that AP had made a typo. When challenged on that, he said, "Well, who the hell is Avril Lavigne?" (He couldn't pronounce the name to save his life, either.) When informed of her fairly elevated profile in the current pop-culture community, he growled, "Well, how the hell am I supposed to keep track of every damn singer out there?" Yet, he can wax rhapsodic in detail about having attended concerts by Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, The Electric Prunes, etc., in his Sixties youth -- he's a virtual encyclopedia of the things that interest him.<p>My point is that it's your job as a copy editor to be interested -- to the point, at least, where you're readily conversant -- with "every damn singer out there," among other contemporary cultural phenomena. To him, these things are less relevant because they're not as personally interesting to him as It's A Beautiful Day or the Great Society. That's okay as a personal prejudice ... but it's the exact opposite of okay as a professional one.<hr></blockquote>And you're right about that, too. I am really bothered by eds who make a point of ignoring a lot of the world and then ask questions that just show their ignorance. <p>Of course, I say this as the Snews news desk resident pop-culture and computer technology queen. :)
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