Y’all Need a Copy Editor: Sure, Let’s Just Ignore the Victims

Here at Words Collide, we’re not into grammar nazism. We do, however, believe that if you’re a well-resourced entity running a public-facing agency, company, or brand, you cannot afford to let messy or offensive errors destroy your messaging. Y’all need a copy editor.

I’ve learned that I no longer have the time or energy to criticize everyone else’s English mistakes, and that (shocker), it usually isn’t my place to do so anyway. The human writers, and editors, among us are far from infallible at the best of times. My editorial philosophy overall is that most situations deserve gentleness and grace.

This column is different because we’ll be talking about the kinds of sloppy mistakes that can embarrass a brand, diminish a minority group, or undermine a key message. Y’all Need a Copy Editor is a pointed callout to businesses, brands, and public figures who should already know better and, if they don’t, immediately invest in the resources and relationships to help them do so. It is a place to uphold the value of employing a diverse, knowledgeable staff when one is able.

The best copy editors aren’t out there merely nitpicking spelling and grammar. They’re deploying years of expertise to help save publications, companies, nonprofits, and governments from their own hubris. It’s unsung, behind-the-scenes labor that most people will never notice until it isn’t done.

If your organization has been releasing material with errors like this, do yourself a favor right now and hire a copy editor, pronto.

What’s wrong with this headline disaster from The New York Post? In short, it takes attention away from the victim, Mei Li Haskell, and elevates both her alleged killer and her famous friends, who were not part of the conflict. (Haskell’s parents were also violently murdered, allegedly by her husband.) Noticeably, the tabloid didn’t even run an image of Mei Li enjoying her time on earth in this story at all until the fifth and final photo. Instead, front and center, are a photo of actor Shawn Ashmore and his wife, pulled from Instagram.

We would be remiss not to note that Mei Li Haskell and her family were clearly of color, presumably Asian-American. The details of Haskell’s murder are horrific, and I say that unhesitatingly as someone who used to cover violent criminal cases. With the knowledge that non-white victims routinely receive less public attention in American media than white ones do, the Post’s choice to headline a piece about their accused murderer’s pre-trial death with both text and graphics allusions to their famous white friends is, simply, a choice.

There’s a sensitive way to center grief, speak to anger, and acknowledge profound loss, which I believe Ashmore’s family meant for their statement to do. This layout isn’t it, and that’s on the publication. A story that should have provided a new opportunity to highlight Mei Li Haskell’s life and relationships instead overshadowed her again.

Since the Post is a tabloid, normally, I’d consider that low-hanging fruit, but there are just too many major editorial lessons in this one bizarre sentence to let go.

What’s wrong with it? It’s clunky. It highlights the wrong things in the wrong order. In the news business, we call that burying the lede. Moving beyond the obvious, if you, like countless others, were left scratching your head and asking what in the Kevin Bacon even is this, it’s not you. It’s the headline.

What they got right: “Dies by suicide” is the correct language, if you’re going to publicize that cause of death. It’s not advisable practice, however, to put that front and center if possible. One reason for this reticence is that stories about self-harm are thought to encourage copycat cases.

Found a doozy we should see? Submit your typos, your punctuation goofs, and your befuddling cultural missteps to Y’all Need a Copy Editor here.

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