'Woody Plaige'

The columns in question, you couldn't prove it and that's because DLB wrote a beautiful feature on Rickey Jackson and Paige took the idea and did a halfass job on it with some quotes from locals that are suspicious.

I've lost track of the number of big-time columnists and features writers who always come up with the perfect quote from some local. It's the whole, "I can't get any player to tell me this, so I'll make up a quote from some local who will magically come up with the perfect quote."

It's not to say it sometimes isn't legitimate, but I would bet that most of the time, they are not.

 

I see.

I remember Joe Posnanski quoting an anonymous fan overheard leaving the stadium once. And the quote he overheard happen to tie into his story beautifully. He was very lucky to overhear that.

 

Yeah... I don't know... I would certainly hope Pos wouldn't do it, but I think it happens a lot...

I think the biggest problem in journalism right now is fabrication, not plagiarsm.

True plagiarism is very easy to prove. A fabricated quote is nearly impossible to prove.

If I was a SE, I would never allow a quote from a fan or seemingly random person without their full name and phone number. Obviously, most writers would never do that, and if the result is they can't quote an anonymous fan or random guy at a bait shop in Pahokee then I think journalism is better off for it.

 

We used to have an editor who was responsible for providing a daily quote submitted by a reader. Once, he was getting ready to leave and he was asked if he'd gotten the reader quote yet. He was rushed but said he'd see what was available.
This editor's name was two initials and one of the most common last names in our country. Within a minute or two, he said he had a quote, put it on a word file and headed for the door. When we looked at the quote, the name on it was that editor's two initials, reversed, and the other most common last name in our country.

 

It would be excellent policy.

Of course, if would also put certain big names out of business.

 

Quote this guy and give your copy desk a thrill


Heywood Jablome
1-900-SEX-LINE

 

I was covering a game several years ago when a big-time columnist said several time in the press box about how if he was a fan he'd be outraged and would want the coach in question fired. He even made a crack about how he wanted the coach fired before he drove past the first city in between said college town and the big city where the columnist lived.

I was sitting next to him when he said it and he repeated it a couple times because he was trying to gauge reaction from the other writers. This columnist was kind of known for bouncing his punchlines off other writers before he wrote.

The next day in the paper, the columnist quoted a fan saying exactly, almost word for word, what the columnist had said. The columnist is beloved and nobody on the planet would have wanted to call the columnist on it, but it was so blatantly obvious that it was disgusting.

The beat writer from that paper, who was sitting on the other side of the columnist during the game, called me the next morning and said, "Did you hear him say that during the game?" and I said, "Yeah, you didn't imagine it..."

The guy is a big-time national columnist now.

 

Why so coy, Mizzou?

 

If people want to name the columnist who they see doing this all the time, that's their prerogative.

It's one of those things that is usually so obvious, but you hold out a shred of hope that what you probably know to be true, isn't...

 

Here's what I don't understand. If it's a column and you need someone to speak for the "fans." make up the person and make it clear that you are creating a character. Mike Royko did it all the time.

No need to fake it. It's your damn opinion.

 

I know... You're 100 percent right. But they still do it.