Sentence:  After his copy had dropped, MacKenzie had gone over to the <WSD>backbench</WSD> and instructed them: 'Don't change a word of this. Then if he's got it wrong the little fucker won't be able to wriggle out of this one!' 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A group of top-level journalists who jointly review submissions and decide on the layout and emphasis of the newspaper.