A Letter From the Editor of “A Local Newspaper”
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 9/18/08 @ 1:29 am - Filed Under Local Politics
As a follow-up to my post regarding a local newspaper lifting a quote from this site and not giving it proper attribution, I decided to send an e-mail to the editor of said paper asking about their attribution policy. Here’s what I wrote:
Craig,
In Tuesday’s editorial on Parkview Field there was a direct quote lifted from my site, Fort Wayne Politics, without any attribution whatsoever. Here’s the sentence in question:
“The chorus of Harrison Square critics already has chimed in on local blog sites, vowing to take its health care dollars elsewhere: “I sure will avoid any Parkview visits during the rest of my life – and you should too!” wrote one of the critics.”
Is there a policy at the JG that would allow your writers to lift a full and complete quote from another news source without any attribution? How can readers be sure the quote wasn’t completely fabricated or quoted out of context if there’s no information they can use to read it for themselves? I understand, from a prior e-mail exchange we had, that you do have a policy of not attributing information that can be independently confirmed - fair enough. But this seems like a completely different scenario as your paper hasn’t just confirmed a fact - it has lifted a quote without attributing the site or the source of the quote (John Kalb).
I don’t think I’ve ever posted an e-mail before but this was more of an official response so I think it’s fair game. Here was what Craig Klugman wrote in response:
I understand you have already commented on our editorial and our use of a quotation at some length and with some vitriol. That being the case, I’ll let the editorial, with the quotation and the context in which we used it, stand as written.
It doesn’t matter to Klugman that his paper violated basic journalism ethics. Nope, what matters is making sure it doesn’t get corrected since I was a meany to the poor editorial staff. The “vitriol” was well deserved and Klugman’s high-school retort is duly noted as well. Of course this makes me wonder what the publisher, Julie Inskeep, thinks of this kind of response - after all she is on the board of the Associated Press.
Here’s the thing, the editor of a newspaper with a rich history of 125 years of operation should take journalism seriously. People will always disagree with you, bad mouth you, etc - that’s simply the nature of the journalism business. But disregarding ethical and/or policy violations for personal reasons is beneath the dignity of the editor position.
As of today I am canceling my subscription as that is the only form of power I can wield. A one-man protest if you will…
Comments
9 Responses to “A Letter From the Editor of “A Local Newspaper””
Leave a Reply
I am going to agree with Klugman on this one.
You wrote the following:
“How can readers be sure the quote wasn’t completely fabricated or quoted out of context if there’s no information they can use to read it for themselves?”
If this were an article, I would feel different- but it was an op-ed piece- context does not really apply.
Jeff,
I cancelled my subscription several months ago.
Mike
Kevin:
Point taken but, that still doesn’t erase the fact that the quote was lifted from Jeff’s blog. I didn’t see an answer to that in the email.
I did forget to add that at least this proves Craig reads or (somebody at the JG reads) your blog.
Kevin,
Context always applies - at least if you want to be intellectually honest. And under no circumstances should the attribution be ignored.
As a former professor of journalism he should know better and I’m sure he does…
Jeff,
If Klugman ran into a group of 4 people standing on a street corner complaining about Parkview Field and one of the individuals (I will call him Ron Balb) said “I will never use Parkview again even if I am full blown cardiac arrest”…. Isnt Klugman perfectly OK to say in the paper “one man standing on the corner said I will never use Parkview again…..” He doesnt need to attribute the quote to anyone. In my mind, blog comments are more akin to people sitting around a bar having a discussion than to a written publication.
It would be different if he lifted a quote from one of your Main Topical arguments that you draft, but he lifted it from a comment. Just my opinion.
It’s all about our time…time in general.
Yet, Mr. Pruitt you have acheived more input/output relevelant news with sources than our local rag News/paper’s will aspire to this year or in the incoming years.
Think about the transformation of the local blog journalists with the help of hard-core blogshere folks. The contribution from everyone is a major change locally. Fort Wayne community extends to the State & just maybe towards a national forum debate. Keep up the great ideas shared for all.
Congradulations to all the hard work & …. !
Time will tell.
green jeans,
No that would not be perfectly ok. In fact no self-respecting editor would ever run an unattributed quote like that.
Furthermore, in this instance they gave a half assed attribution which was clearly intentional.
[...] failed the house vote today because Nancy Pelosi was too mean to the Republicans. Sounds like the whiny response of a local newspaper editor I [...]