The Ethics of the Story by Craig David;

Author:Craig, David;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1351065
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated
Published: 2013-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

One of the most significant areas for ethical choice in quote editing is when, if ever, to change grammar. Minor changes in grammar may not materially alter the meaning of a sentence, but even people’s grammar says something about who they are—so choices about grammar raise issues about truth telling. They even connect with compassion because, particularly for people who are not used to being in the news or are poorly educated, communicating their grammar in a literal way can cause embarrassment.

Frank Smith, the deputy copy desk chief on the news copy desk at the Morning News, said the paper handles choices about grammar in quotes case by case, taking into account the writer’s perspective and the views of editors. “If it’s someone in power who misspeaks and it’s an important issue, I think you’re more likely to see then this statement in quotes,” he said.79 Melissa McCoy, assistant managing editor for copy desks at the Times and later deputy managing editor, said the paper has faced choices about how to handle quotes from a prominent official, President Bush, who has himself acknowledged that he does not always speak cleanly and articulately—and in fact has laughed at his own stumbles. Since the main goal of the newspaper is to communicate clearly with readers, paraphrasing may help—but McCoy said editors would not edit inarticulate quotes and leave them in quotation marks.80

When the speaker is not in a position of power or in the media spotlight, more ethical sensitivity is needed on how to render quotes. McCoy cited the example of a PTA meeting where parents may be present to represent their children’s interests but may not be very articulate: “I think what I would do is simply not use a lot of quoted matter from those people. I would paraphrase what they said because it’s the information that’s important, not the way they said it. But that’s an ethical issue.”81 Some journalists would probably make minor grammatical changes in that case, but the choice to paraphrase better preserves truthfulness while showing compassion for the people.

In some stories about ordinary people, the importance of preserving the distinctiveness of communication style or dialect calls for quoting, not paraphrasing, and leaving the grammar alone. “Clearly,” McCoy said, “when it’s a personality profile or it’s a story with flavor about a neighborhood or something, if you didn’t write it the way they said it, it would look as if you hadn’t been there.”82 Kurt Streeter of the Times showed he had been there in a profile of Arthur Winston, a ninety-seven-year-old man who had worked for seventy years cleaning vehicles for the Los Angeles transit agency—with one day’s absence. He opened the story this way (quotes in italics):

Strong and sharp and bearing down on 100 years of living, Arthur Winston has drawn a bead on what it takes to age well.

Cut up the credit cards.

They don’t do nothing more than bring about worry. Worry will kill you.

Get off the couch.

Stop in one place too long, you freeze up.

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