Cleaning up the Quote: Wash Post Ombudsman faults ex-Reporter Howard Bryant

You know, man, if you want to call Howard Bryant a piece of shit liar on an anonymous message board that is between you and him--although of course, you aren't actually facing him when you do it, so it is between him and some guy on an anonymous message board.

And if you really want to be high and mighty about a quote is a quote, then fine. Do your job that way. I told you how many sports writers ACTUALLY do their job. There is a reason for it. They have to face these guys and rely on them year round. You are not changing the meaning, you are just cleaning up grammar and syntax. The reader still knows what the guy said, and by not making him sound like an idiot, he's there for you the next day and the day after that and the day after that. If you are willing to potentially sacrifice talking to the star running back all season because "a quote is a quote," even if cleaning up some grammar doesn't change the meaning, all the power to you. Obviously lots of people on this thread agree with you. They just express it more reasonably. I don't envy them if it ever bites them in the ass -- and even if it doesn't 9 times out of ten, it will eventually.

Where I do take issue is with your "PR hack" nonsense. Can you make a statement that isn't so absolutist? Given the nature of about 70 percent of your posts on this board, I know that your problem is that Bryant didn't let the ebonics-speaking athlete sound like an ebonics-speaking athlete in print. That is ALWAYS your agenda on here -- you are either baiting blacks or muslims or making some other such veiled post. And you disguise it in the guise of something else when you can. Such as this.

The problem here, is that the point of those stories in the sports section are not to point out that Clinton Portis doesn't speak the Queen's English. I know that is what YOU want the point to be--anyone can hit the search button on here to see your agenda when it comes to blacks, muslims and others different than you. The actual point is to inform Redskins fans about Redskins-related news. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with cleaning up a quote from Portis, because there is nothing lost. The meaning wasn't changed. And it served the story, which wasn't a story about a black athlete who doesn't express himself well enough for your tastes, but was really just a story about the Redskins and what is going on with their running back. Cleaning up the quote didn't change any of that. Nothing lost and probably a lot gained. Pr hack? How fucking insulting. Howard Bryant wasn't drafting press releases from Clinton Portis. He wasn't adding or changing meaning of his words. He cleaned up a quote. Jeez. Gain some perspective. Or at least be honest about the fact that you just wanted the black guy to come off poorly in print so you can get your jollies about it.