C/o Volunteer Opinion Journal. Let’s not forget Penelope Trunk who said:

As a journalist I hear all the time from people in business that they are misquoted. And you know what? People need to get over that, and I’m going to tell you why…

Journalists who think they are telling “the truth” don’t understand the truth. We each have our own truth. When you leave out details, you might leave out what is unimportant to you but very important to someone else, and things start feeling untrue to the person who wishes you included something else…

So everyone feels misquoted because people say 20 or 30 sentences for every one sentence that a journalist prints. It’s always in the context of the journalist’s story, not the speaker’s story.

So, basically the journalist interprets what he/she believes the truth is. Not what the truth really is.

Then, there’s the Newsweek article by Sharon Begley, in which a picture was painted of global warming deniers, portraying them as evil naysayers, who are well-funded machines intending to destroy the earth. Newsweek’s contributing editor Robert J. Samuelson attacked the article, and his own publication, for what he called a “highly contrived” cover story, and blasted Newsweek for letting “self-righteous indignation” undermine “good journalism”.

Yet, they blame us bloggers for their troubles.