Surprise! Copy Editors Are Destroying America's Newspapers (with PUNS)

The National Conference of the American Copy Editors Society has announced its headline contest winners and it is now clear who is destroying the media. Among the many talented, hard-working winners — and you know we love our copy editors! — we find a batch of puns so foul, so egregious, that it’s difficult to not feel pranked.

First place for individuals at newspapers with circulation under 80,001 goes to a staffer at the Wichita Eagle, whose winning entries include this… one.

Here’s one among the contributions for second place?

AT LEAST IT’S NOT A PUN.

For newspapers that were bigger than that but under 160,000, here’s a winner from the Providence Journal.

Does it get better in the 160,001 to 240,000 category??? Let’s ask the first-place winner, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette!

Huh. To be fair, a couple of them are pretty good.

Fun fact: the second-place winner in this category actually also had good work! Kudos, Matthew Craowley of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Okay and at the big boy papers? Andy Webster at the NY Times took third, and, well, sure! Deserved.

The Los Angeles Times took second…

… and first place as well. WHICH….

If you think these are pretty AW SHUCKS, then you should see the student and online category winners.