Quote, Unquote (WaPa Changes Quotes)

Washington Post ^ | August 12, 2007 | Deborah Howell

[PurpleMan]

Several readers of an early edition of the July 28 Sports section noticed different versions of the same quote from Redskins running back Clinton Portis in a story by Howard Bryant and a column by Mike Wise. In Bryant's story, Portis said: "I don't know how anybody feels. I don't know how anybody's thinking. I don't know what anyone else is going through. The only thing I know is what's going on in Clinton Portis's life." Wise quoted him as saying: "I don't know how nobody feel, I don't know what nobody think, I don't know what nobody doing, the only thing I know is what's going on in Clinton Portis's life."

[PurpleMan]

The WaPo violates its own policy and most cammons of journalism by changing the quote of a black athlete for better grammar.

Thoughts?

[Enterprise]

Your title is WaPa, and the story is about WaPo. C’mon now, who really screwed up the quote. WaPa or WaPo?

[Philistone]

Happens. I always cleaned up people’s quotes a little so they wouldn’t sound like idiots (unless that was the point of the article). Especially if I ever wanted to interview that person again.

[Red Badger]

cammons?......You better knot change it!...........

[Jaysun]

If the black athlete is too stupid to speak plain English I’m in favor of it being cleaned up by the journalist. Maybe they could have said, A translation of what Clinton Portis said is as follows:

But that’s about it. Learn English fools.

[DB]

They should print the actual quote and then the translation so the rest of us can understand it...

[Sterlis]

Surprised? I'm not.

"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." Mark Twain

Been going on for a long time...

[DCPatriot]

I would like everybody to post in this thread as if Bill O'Reilly was reading over your shoulder.

LOL!

[Steve_Seattle]

"I always cleaned up people’s quotes a little so they wouldn’t sound like idiots."

Well, if you ALWAYS did it maybe that's ok, but if it's selective for PC purposes or to "get" some specific person, it's not ok. I think the MSM does the latter; they made a national legend out of Quayle's potatoe gaffe.

[Tall_Texan]

"Ah don' know nuthin' 'bout changin' no quotes..."

[ConservaTexan]

Bryant, who just left The Post for ESPN, thinks the policy is wrong. "For me, having covered athletes for 15 years, I've always felt conscious and uncomfortable about the differences in class, background and race -- I'm an African American -- and in terms of the people who are doing the speaking and the people who are doing the writing. I really don't like to make people look stupid, especially when I understand what they're saying."

Does he clean up the quotes of all athletes or only those of African American athletes? Why does he feel the need to clean up quotes? This is akin to social promotion in our schools, don't adress the problem-cover it up.

[Sterlis]

Then it is not a quote. It’s an interpretation and should be explained that it is such.

You might do a great job of cleaning up small grammatical errors without altering that which was said but I sure don’t trust the average J-School sponge head to do that job.

Just report the facts. We will decide. Sounds like a slogan!

[Trailerpark Badass]

They should print the actual quote and then the translation so the rest of us can understand it...

Is that like when television shows use subtitles for ostensibly English-speaking urban denizens?

[Philistone]

Goes without saying. Bush is an idiot because he doesn’t know the name of some podunk president in some Asian stan, and Hussein Obama gets a pass when claiming that Canada has a president. SOP for the MSM. Doesn’t have much to do with changing “ain’t” to “am not”.

[Philistone]

You’ve obviously never been a journalist. Nobody, and I mean nobody, speaks they way they would write the same thing.

Do you really think you would enjoy reading articles where every third word was “uhm...”?

[lapster]

Clearly this WaPo writer doesn’t understand and appreciate the clarion beauty of Ebonics.

[CarryingOn]

So at the WaPo, if they think that you “sound stupid” they will put words in your mouth. Or as they say in video land a voice over. If I was the offending speaker, I might have mixed emotions about that.

[Republican Red]

Reminds me of Neal Boortz’s “Boo Got Shot”. Good luck getting an exact quote out of that interview.

http://boortz.com/mp3/archive/boo_got_shot_translation.mp3

[ConservaTexan]

Word.

[karnage]

Earl Bush, Mayor Richard J. Daley’s press secretary during the 1960s and 70s, used to plead with newspapermen: “Don’t write what he says, write what he means!”

SOP - don’t make your subject sound like an imbecile.