I'm fast becoming one of the media's worst critics, even though I'm probably viewed as part of the problem with this industry (being an editor and all that).
But one of the things that really bothers me is how reporters often pull fast ones over the readers. I witnessed two cases in point last week. There was a story about a fatal accident in the local daily, complete with quotes from one of the local RCMP sergeants, who we had been pestering for a quote. When the story appeared and the other guys got a quote, well we wondered why. The officer told us that he had not spoken to the other paper. So how did his quotes appear? I seems they took a press release the sergeant issued and used those items as direct quotes.
The problem I have with this type of reporting is when quotes appear in a story, the assumption is made by the reader that the writer actually talked to the person who is being quoted. Not always the case.
The policy here at the Free Press is to properly attribute everything. In other words, if we pull quotes or items from a press release, we let the reader know it came from a press release. To do otherwise is to be unfair to the reader and that, in my humble opinion, is the biggest mistake a journalist can make.
The other instance of shoddy journalism occurred on Friday. There was yet another press conference with the usual gaggle of politicians. The politicians, however, were running a bit late so we journos had to wait. Nothing new there. It happens all the time.
One reporter, ticked that she had to wait, snapped up the supplied press release and headed out the door, saying she had all she needed. When the story appeared the next day, her story was complete with lots of quotes from lots of politicians and mucky-mucks, including one who wasn't even there. Had she stuck around, she would have known the person she quoted wasn't even at the meeting.
The sad part is when the reader picks up the paper in the morning, they don't know the difference. They think the reporter has talked to half a dozen people in tracking down that story when the truth is they talked to no one and simply took a press release issued by the government, put their byline on it, and called it reporting.