Tuesday, October 09, 2007
The Media - Using Quotation Marks
This is a sports article and may not seem like a big deal; but, if writers don't think quotes need to be accurate, what are we to believe?...
The media's handling of quotation marks is discussed by Deborah Howell at the Washington Post website:
"When you read a quote in The Post, is what's between the quotation marks exactly what the person said? Post policy says it should be, but it ain't necessarily so.
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.'"
