Any experienced reporter knows the value of working with an experienced and fact-focused copy editor.
A good copy editor challenges everything in the article, focuses on details small and large, checks spelling and grammar, and looks for discrepancies that will embarrass the newspaper — and the reporter — if they get through to publication. A good reporter welcomes that type of scrutiny.
Ed Sargent is one of those copy editors extraordinaire.
Sadly, as U.S. newspapers trim costs, copy editing positions are being eliminated or removed to remote locations. Some corporate managers don’t seem to understand the copy editor’s role and how those jobs preserve the integrity and accuracy of the newspaper and its website.
Many of the names in the Daily Texan Hall of Fame are of journalists whose bylines are famous to the public at large — illustrious reporters, correspondents and photographers, as well as distinguished journalism educators.
But we should not forget that it is the unheralded journalists behind the scenes — hardworking editors, deskmen and newsroom managers — who are the ones responsible for getting the news before the reader’s eyes and ensuring that it is fair, accurate, appropriately played, well-written and topped with an engaging headline.
When Ed was 7, his father set up a small, at-home print shop as a hobby for him and his sons. There, Ed learned to handset type and operate a platen printing press. That led him and his older brother, Ben, to produce a couple of small-scale, newspaper-like publications.
After enrolling at the University of Texas, Ed worked as a copy editor at The Daily Texan in 1974 and 1975.
After graduation in 1976, he had a distinguished career at several top newspapers in the Southwest as a copy editor, layout editor and news editor: the Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, Arkansas Gazette and The Daily Oklahoman.
In college, he had internships at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and was a congressional intern in Washington, D.C., in 1976.
He was news editor of The Oklahoman in 1995, leading the presentation of that paper’s award-winning coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing.
During his 40-year career, he was a first-hand participant in the conversion of newspaper production from typed copy that was edited and laid out with a trusty pencil and a line gauge, to the computerization of the entire process.
Ed carried out his editing and management duties with unfailing calmness, good judgment, precision, attention to detail and above all, treatment of his fellow journalists with compassion and respect.
Ed is married to Linda Franklin Sargent, who was a longtime reporter and editor for The Associated Press. Besides being a baseball fan and a railroad buff, he is a life-long opera aficionado, still working as a light-walker and supernumerary with the Dallas Opera.
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