What do you do when someone comes out of the woodwork and clobbers you for quoting his remarks without attribution? As a writer, when a reader forwards me a message string or document and it is illuminating on some point or another, you have two or three options:
Don’t print it without knowing the details of the source and soliciting a lot of permissions
or
Remove all names and print it without attribution (a little birdy told me)
or
Run it as is and wait for the sh-t to hit the fan
All day, in transit to San Fran, I have been getting hammered with email traffic from a fellow who says that I reprinted a message string stored on his reflector. His original beef was that it wasn’t attributed to his new organization for off-site storage companies. Then, he contacted my editor at a pub where I write and apparently took exception not only to my use of unattributed quotes but also my opinion stated there about some off-site storage vendors who fall into the category of any guy with a bank vault calling himself a qualified off-site storage provider. I think the word I used was “charlatan.”
My editor took all of his quotes out of the piece, which I think was a rather draconian response. But, it’s his pub.
This is getting silly. I want everyone to know that whoever wishes to quote this blog has my full permission. Since when did common sense have to be so mired in regs, restrictions and paperwork?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Is that quoting with or without attribution? I ask because most writers are taught in middle school that using another’s words without credit is, quite simply, plagiarism.
I know, Anon, everything we need to know in life is learned in kindergarten. But, things are rarely so black and white. The Pentagon Papers were printed in the NY Times (and later in the Washington Post) because their disclosure, without approval of the owner — the DOD, was deemed to be in the public interest.
I published an email thread that was sent to me by a source who was qualified and appropriately authoritative to grant permission for the reprint. Out of courtesy to the email respondents, I redacted the names. Three months later, one of the folks quoted complained that the quotes had not been cited to their speakers. Later he was pissed because of what conclusions I drew from the exchange.
Bottom line: I know better than to lift the original work of another and to call it my own. That doesn’t happen in what I write here or anywhere.
I do wonder, however, what “work product” means in a journalistic sense. Quoting something that someone said publicly without attribution is sometimes a technique to prevent the embarassment of the speaker. In this case, it was a setup for a broader conclusion about off-site storage vendors and the lack of standards and best practices in that industry.
Not exactly as important as the Pentagon Papers, but irritating nonetheless to my editor and to me.
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