Comment Re:The Quote is Wildly out of Context (Score 2, Insightful) 503
As I read through the SlashDot comments, it becomes clear to me that some people don't understand how newspaper interviews work.
Generally they're conducted by telephone. The reporter calls with a story idea. He's looking for information, background, quotes, etc. He asks a bunch of questions and has a conversation with the interviewee. In this case, the AP reporter was writing a story on licensing computer users, and he wanted to know what I thought about it. I spoke with the reporter for about ten minutes about this idea.
The reporter eventually hangs up. He talks to other people. Then, he writes the story. His job is to string together the facts and quotes into an interesting and entertaining news article.
I never get to see what quote he uses. I never get to approve the context. I never see the story before it appears in print.
People are misquoted all the time. Be careful about judging someone by a single quote they say in print, especially if it's something you wouldn't expect them to say. I'm always aware of the high error rate in news stories, but not everyone is.
Bruce
Generally they're conducted by telephone. The reporter calls with a story idea. He's looking for information, background, quotes, etc. He asks a bunch of questions and has a conversation with the interviewee. In this case, the AP reporter was writing a story on licensing computer users, and he wanted to know what I thought about it. I spoke with the reporter for about ten minutes about this idea.
The reporter eventually hangs up. He talks to other people. Then, he writes the story. His job is to string together the facts and quotes into an interesting and entertaining news article.
I never get to see what quote he uses. I never get to approve the context. I never see the story before it appears in print.
People are misquoted all the time. Be careful about judging someone by a single quote they say in print, especially if it's something you wouldn't expect them to say. I'm always aware of the high error rate in news stories, but not everyone is.
Bruce
