The Washington Post illustrates a perfect example of why a news organization — in this case the Wall Street Journal — needs to make darn sure they get a quote directly, and more important, correctly. This is the line the Journal reporter supposedly heard spoken by Republican Rep. Richard Baker of Baton Rouge to lobbyists:
“We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.”
You can imagine the mileage his political opponents are getting out of that one. But here’s what Baker said he said:
“What I remember expressing, in a private conversation with a housing advocate and member of my staff, was that ‘We have been trying for decades to clean up New Orleans public housing to provide decent housing for residents, and now it looks like God is finally making us do it,’ ” Baker wrote. “Obviously I have never expressed anything but the deepest concern about the suffering that this terrible catastrophe has caused for so many in our state.”
Who knows what he really said, or the intention behind it, but reporters are getting pretty sloppy if they “overhear” something and then don’t speak directly to that person to correctly understand what they’re saying.
