Not too long ago, the Tucson Weekly interviewed a subject who, when the paper hit the streets, decided she didn’t like how she came off in print (or, for online readers, in pixels). She claimed, among other things, that the Weekly paraphrased her answers to questions that she was never asked, and that as a result, she sounded stupid.
However, this interview subject never contacted the reporter, or me, or anyone else involved with the Tucson Weekly to complain. Instead, she went on Facebook to air her grievances.
Because Tucson is a small town in many ways, her complaints eventually made their way to me. Now, I have several things to say in response.
First, claiming that a reporter is making stuff up is a serious accusation. That’s potentially a job-costing accusation.
Second, if someone has a serious problem with a reporter or a newspaper’s coverage, that someone should contact the newspaper. To whine on a social-networking site and not let the newspaper know that there’s a potential problem is, to put it nicely, lame. It’s also somewhat revealing.
I’ve been in this business long enough to know that when a person claims he or she was misquoted or improperly paraphrased, more often than not, the interviewee was actually quoted or paraphrased accurately. Sometimes, people get in trouble after their words show up in print/pixels, and use the misquote claim to try to deflect that heat. Other times, people read their quotes and don’t like them, even though those quotes reflect exactly what was said. I’ve been quoted many, many times by other media, and I have often grimaced when I read my published quotes—not because I was misquoted, but because what I actually said didn’t convey what I wanted to say, at least not in the polished way I wanted to say it.
Having said all that, sometimes, people are actually misquoted, and whenever that happens, it’s important to contact the reporter and/or the editor … not one’s wall on Facebook.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2011.
Speaking as a graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism, University of Kansas, I know that what you say is a deadly accurate statement from years gone by. However, in today’s world, the factual reporting of news without the reporter slipping in an editorial slant is rare.
There is frequent misquoting whether intentional or not. There are many quotes taken out of context so that they seem to appear as something they are not. There are many statements which are paraphrased that end up meaning something that the speaker or writer did not intend. Paraphrasing is a dangerous thing to do in reporting vs editorializing. I’m glad to see you defending your profession, and truly hope that you adhere to the principles you espouse, however, many “reporters” do not!
Ask a journalism student from decades ago why they wanted to be a reporter and the response would be words to effect that they wanted to report events and inform people. Ask many of today’s journalism students why they want to enter the profession and you will hear words to the effect that they want to help change the world.
Reporting factual accounts of an event is reporting! Paraphrasing and adding opinion is editorializing. Both are forms of journalism but only one is pure! Even the omission of known fact turns reporting into an editorial. It’s like the concept that telling a “half-truth” is still a lie!
I totally agree that people should go to the source of their complaint first, rather than immediately go global on the web on the myriad of vehicles available. Along those lines, please consider how someone in my business (local restaurant owner) feels when people are able to write ‘reviews’ of their latest dining experiences on not only FB, but the dozens of other platforms and sites available. Diners can not only exaggerate, but totally misrepresent or worse, make up the whole review with no repercussions. Their ‘review’ can infiltrate the spidery web and reach millions. The owner has no recourse but to hope that a larger number of good reviews are posted to counterbalance the bad. So, as you said, I wish these people would contact us with problems or complaints directly. We are always happy to make things right. Colette Landeen, owner Jonathan’s Cork