Written Pyramids

NOTE: I found this saved as a draft in the inner workings of my blogger. I have since freaked out at Gilmore Girls more than once, including reliving my own rejection from an internship I had really wanted, before going on to be annoyed at Rory for assuming she would actually get the Times internship. But my original reaction to the portrayal of the YDN, still stands, so I edited a little and am posting it.

I should have been clued in when Rory said "You have to write something for every department, and then if those pass muster, then you're on staff." The word "department" should have raised flags for me, but no. Instead of yelling "section! Section! even at the YDN they must be called sections," I wondered, "hmmm. Do they really make their new staff do that? And then my mind drifted into thoughts about the pros and cons of making new staff copy edit for a night.
I needed another reminder that Gilmore Girls, complete wit hits portrayal of the YDN is fiction.
And then the reminders came. Quickly and obviously.

How the YDN cannot possibly be like it is portrayed in real life. Let me count the ways:

1. The YDN seems to be in an academic building in Yale. OK. I can deal with a T.V. show not wanting to understand the intricacies of independence for a college paper. But..
2. The office is FULL of people IN THE MORNING. That makes no sense. This is a college paper we are talking about.
3. Oh, it gets worse. Doyle, who is an editor of some importance, makes Rory write two drafts of a review before telling her the reason he doesn't run them is because she has failed to actually review the piece. Sure, college papers are mean and thoughtless, but yeesh.
4. Doyle takes Rory's hard copy of her rejected review and yells "Stan, file this for me." Sure, there are some things that college papers like to keep around in hard copy. The interest sheet of the over eager freshman who became EIC and then a staff reporter at Newsweek, the printouts of the law case against the CIA. But a rejected article? And who is this Stan who does Doyle's bidding? Why didn't my college papers have Stans?
5. Later Rory brings a hard copy, again in the morning, again to an office with a conspicuous lack of computers, and Doyle decides he likes it. So he waves the pieces of paper around and Doyle beckons Stan again and says "get this to layout" before saying "I love doing that" to which Rory responds "And you look good doing it." AHHH. What on earth is layout doing at a college paper when it is light outside? And why oh why would you subject layout to typing up the review again, when there is such things as e-mail, computers, and workflow systems? Who knows?
   

But it might have something to do with the fact that Doyle, seems to be the only editor. Eyes rolled many a times over, and I will not write about Gilmore Girls again.