3 ms·
Almost all journalism is this bad.The only reason you happened to notice it here is that it's a subject you know and care about. The pieces on Obama's strategy
by mixmax 17y ago
Almost all journalism is this bad.The only reason you happened to notice it here is that it's a subject you know and care about. The pieces on Obama's strategy towards Iran aren't any better - you just don't notice it because it doesn't stand out to you. .
- ljlolel 17y agoAgreed. Anybody who has ever been interviewed for an article understands how painfully one can be misinterpreted and marginalized.
- tokenadult 17y agoI've been interviewed for various articles, and I agree that the published article never looks like a verbatim representation of what I remember saying in the interview. On the other hand, I've also been a journalist (not for any prestigious publication), and I've been amazed at how much is said in journalist interviews that is not the least bit verifiable or sensitive to context. So journalists usually do have to adapt what their sources say as they write up articles. A really good book about the journalist process, sort of a "secret weapon" for sources, is Media Smart by Dennis Stauffer, a journalist whose work I used to see on local TV. http://www.amazon.com/Media-Smart-How-Handle-Reporter/dp/B001CQC9OQ/ http://www.amazon.com/Media-Smart-How-Handle-Reporter/dp/B00... Stauffer provides a lot of advice about how to get your story told your way if you deal with the press, to the greatest extent possible, and explains what extent of getting your way is possible. P.S. I've also had occasion to read many court trial transcripts over the years, and no two witnesses to the same event ever describe it the same way, even when purporting to quote the exact words of somone else. It generally takes multiple sources to arrive at some reasonable approximation of the truth.