"said in an interview"

I'm sorry, Ace, I thought you were talking about an instance when the East Buttfuck News-Express-Gleaner & Times used a quote from the Podunk Press.

I don't think Joe Paterno tells anybody anything alone.

 

The thing that also perturbs me is what is creeping a lot into AP copy.

"XXXX told The Associated Press."

No crap, they told you. If it was from another source, you'd be crediting it.

 

I disagree. You don't think JoePa talks to JoeMa after geriatric sex?

 

Bad, bad visual.

 

"said in a conversation overheard using an illegal wiretap."

"wrote in internal documents found in a nearby Dumpster."

"told another reporter pleasantly within earshot of The News-Rehasher."

 

In the Jayson Blair world, a lot of papers make you clarify when the comment was made.

I don't agree with it, but that's part of the reason you see it so much... I think if a comment is made by email or test message, that should be included in the story.

 

Sure, that I get.

But Joe Reader's faith in what he is reading isn't going to change since the story included "said in a phone interview."

 

I don't clarify unless quotes come from e-mails or prepared statements, or when I get info from a peer — such as the brutal "Coach John Doe told the Daily Bugle on Monday that Team X was full of dirty players, but on Tuesday he declined or could not be reached for comment by My Paper."

Most people who issue prepared statements are too scared to take questions. I think readers are smart enough to know that.

 

"said in an interview" is indeed quite popular

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http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=%22said+in+an+interview%22&ie=UTF-8&scoring=n

 

You never delete it in?

 

Too. Shay.

 

I use it when I've included in my story quotes obtained several different ways - say, some of them from a funeral and some of them from a private conversation earlier in the day.

"He was the best brother in the world," Smith said in his eulogy.
--
"This is just about the hardest day of my life," Smith said in an interview earlier in the day.