TIM BARRUS, NEW YORK TIMES

Mistakes. Happen. Metaphors. Happen. Judgement calls. Happen. Metaphors are added to anecdotal evidence. Copy editors everywhere at any publication will squint and ponder if a metaphor is appropriate. Their eyes to the sky. My eyes, too. I have had endings to my books redrawn and changed without even consulting me. We use the term copy editor, usually a mystery, to imbue avoidance of responsibility. They hide. The entire notion that not everyone needs a name is a huge problem journalism itself hides behind with both a mirror and a transparency we assume exists because we do not look at who wrote this piece, good or bad, and what we abrogate is a journalism that defines and hides the meaning or meaninglessness of the thing, itself. Identity. Upended. Editors can be conflicted. But power is silent, and the copy editor can be the power behind the editorial human being who has enormous influence where influence is a harassed, busy, overworked, pressure cooker of one meal begets another. I want these people who have no names to have names. I promise not to email you. But I might email you. You can take the heat. The New York Times is pretty good about who works for the publication, but the New York Times is quite mean about any kind of access to people and writers that exist, but publishing Twitter accounts as reciprocity is disingenuous because these accounts are designed to keep us out. Our voices are rendered mute once again. The copy editor is an editor, too. Just say so.