“Editors, I liked to say, were all failed writers, and bitter about it…”

Tom Shales was a widely admired columnist for The Washington Post where, he says, he "spent roughly 39 varyingly rewarding years, most of those as TV critic."

"Varyingly" is the key word. Shales, in a post on the About Editing and Writing blog by Jack Limpert, former editor of The Washingtonian, explains that much of the "variation" in his rewards came from editors he had, a few of whom were great, and most of whom were awful. There is no room for mediocrity in Shales's universe.

If you're an editor, you might be inclined to stop reading when you get to this, in the third graf:

I regularly denounced editors as a species, insulting them with such disparagements as, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can’t even teach, edit.”  Editors, I liked to say, were all failed writers, and bitter about it…

I apologize to all my editors, past and present, for repeating this and for linking to Shales's column.

Disclaimer: The comments in the Shales post do not reflect the views of the Tracker, MIT, its management, faculty or staff. 

But they are viciously funny.

-By Paul Raeburn