NPRSpeak

[Donald M Lance]

on 7/17/02 8:51 AM, Joanne M. Despres at jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM wrote:

> I (and I'm sure others on this list) can vouch for Rick Kennerly's
> statement that pen-and-ink writers do quite a lot of reshaping and
> re-contextualizing of original statements.  One Monday morning I
> was very surprised to learn from a colleague that I'd been quoted in
> William Safire's column the previous day.  Turned out he'd quoted
> from a post I wrote to this list!   The way the column read, though,
> it sounded for all the world as though he'd talked to me.  Not only
> that, but he went on, after quoting the fact reported in the posting,
> to make exactly the opposite argument to the one that I was trying
> to prove with that fact.  (The gist of my argument was passed over
> in silence.)
>
> The issue in question wasn't all that important, and I didn't mind
> being quoted, but the experience shed some very interesting light
> on journalistic practices.
>
> Joanne Despres
>
Try residing in a town that is overrun with journalism students who put out
a daily local paper.  If the student doesn't get it wrong, the graduate
student copy editor does.

DML