'Said in an interview' or just 'said' or ...

[mediaguy]

"Boy, this is redundant," Mediaguy said Thursday from his kitchen, where his laptop was connected to the Internet via wireless signal.

 

[Boobie Miles]

I hear you Boobie. But it is a question that's going to keep coming up. I'd never responded on the other threads but now it's making me wonder more and more.

Look at athletes' comments on their personal websites. If Tiger or Barry Bonds says something on his website, even if it's not particularly newsworthy, it's always attributed as "Tiger Woods said on his website." NASCAR drivers, on the other hand, are quoted all the time from their sites but almost never with such attribution.

I know I was just having a little fun. We really should try to come to some consensus because I never used to think twice about this, but now I've found myself noticing it in other's stories. I defer to Johnny Dangerously's list earlier, that seems to have the circumstances when it's needed to specify. Those actually tell the reader something of some import, the other circumstances are just a blowjob and a waste of a few words in already tight news holes that no one really cares about.

 

[da man]

If you pull a quote off an e-mail or someone's web site or a text message, it needs to be noted because there is no way to verify if the person writing the quote actually is who he says he is (or she). Same reason you should note if something was said in a statement. Were those really Michael Vick's words, or those of his agent or publicist?

Also, if you have a dateline on a story and you get a quote by phone from somewhere other than the dateline, note that. The dateline idicates where you gathered the information. If you use the quote without noting it was from somewhere else, that's misleading (though admittedly not one of the more egregious examples of misleading writing).

 

[RedCanuck]

Use said, unless there's a damn good reason - i.e. to distinguish between, say, talking to a coach on the field or later on by phone, or between someone's public remarks and a follow up. If not, said is fine.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

"We're just going to take it one game at a time and focus on the task at hand," coach Whistle Blower said Thursday after finally calling The Daily Rag, which left messages on his cell phone, office voice mail and home answering machine after initially receiving no answer at Wednesday's press luncheon and having repeated e-mails go unanswered and several text messages equally ignored.
The phone call lasted 58 seconds, ending abruptly without a goodbye.

 

[User 4755]

"It was a tough game. I give the Blowhards all the credit in the world. We knew they'd be a tough team because they put their pants on one leg at a time like we do. But we just went out and played one down at a time, one series at a time, one quarter at a time, one game at a time," said Hooterville head coach of the coaching staff Joe Smith via his T-Mobile cell phone at his Monday meet the media/teleconference/videoconference/session......... ???

Enough said.

Said.

 

[Joe Williams]

Transparency for credibility's sake is one thing. Exhibitionism for ego gratification is another.

I always figure the places that drop their own joints into copy -- ``... told the Daily Bullshirtter Tuesday...'' -- for yip dogs desperate for attention.

Said works for me.

 

[da man]

Transparency for credibility's sake is one thing. Exhibitionism for ego gratification is another.

I always figure the places that drop their own joints into copy -- ``... told the Daily Bullshirtter Tuesday...'' -- for yip dogs desperate for attention.

Said works for me.

... ESPN's Joe Williams reported.

 

[forever_town]

Said. Differentiate sometimes if you got a quote from a press release or a statement.

I'd only do differently if it were a MAJOR story that only we got.

For example, "Coach Blowhard told The Weekly Bullshirt he would resign after rumors began circulating that he had sex with one of his players." That's if The Weekly Bullshirt was the ONLY paper to get it direct from the horse's mouth instead of the standard "personal reasons" answer.

 

[ServeItUp]

"said in an interview..."

As opposed to a seance? Fireside chat? Pillow talk? "Said" works just fine. No need to elaborate.

 

[Ike Broflovski]

"said in an interview..."

As opposed to a seance? Fireside chat? Pillow talk? "Said" works just fine. No need to elaborate.

It seems as if we just had this discussion.

Actually, there are times when "said in an interview" is a good idea to differentiate something that was said publicly and something that was said as a way of explanation later:

"Obama's a forktard," Hillary Clinton said to a crowd gathered at City Hall for a rally.

"I said he was a forktard because I'd read that on SportsJournalists.com and liked that expression," Sen. Clinton said in an interview.

This doesn't come up as often in sports, but it does occasionally.

 

[for_the_hunt]

Well, I messed up the subject line --- I meant 'said in a telephone interview.'

Didn't realize this was a d_b, so I'm sorry about that. But it doesn't seem like it was an issue that was resolved anyway. It seems like most everyone agrees a teleconference call should not simply be referred to as "said in a telephone interview," and the consensus appears to be a quote should never include "told The Daily FW" UNLESS it's some sort of breaking, important news.

However, in an exclusive phone interview, there seems to be a fairly wide divide --- do we just go with "said" or "said in a telephone interview"?

We decided to go with "said in a telephone interview," but that's because we couldn't come to an agreement --- and this seemed like the easy compromise. If this situation would arise again, I'm not sure we would handle it the same way ... maybe we would for consistency's sake ... but I'm honestly not sure what way's better.

Anyhow, thanks for the feedback. We were able to at least eliminate "told The College Paper," which I'm glad we didn't end up using.