Interesting note on APSE ethics

Just snooping around the APSE site and read its ethics guidelines.

This has probably been on the books for a while, but it jumped out:

(a) Sharing and pooling of notes and quotes should be discouraged. If a reporter uses quotes gained secondhand, that should be made known to the readers. A quote could be attributed to a newspaper or to another reporter.

My question is - isn't it silly for a beat pack not to split up quote duties, especially in baseball in a manager's pregame? Or a college football weekly coach's presser?

 

This does seem odd. If that's the case, why do they hand out quote sheets at the end of college football games?

 

The APSE doesn't do that.

 

I don't think that rule applies to pregame or postgame sessions or anything like that. I think it applies to weekly notes columns. And many papers now run taglines at the end saying something like: "compiled from beat writers across the country."

 

So AP stories will now start crediting the stringers who track down the quotes for the writer whose byline appears?

 

Unless I missed a sarcasm font...the answer is easy: handing out quote sheets at the end of any game, press conference, etc., is the organization's way of controlling, to the extent it can, what ends up in print.

Seems like a convenience, etc.

The ethics guideline seems pretty solid -- there are reporters who cut deals with competitors to trade info -- it's been a while since my sportswriting days, but I have seen it on the news side: two reporters agree to exchange information by taking turns covering meetings, etc. It's an appalling practice.

The operative phrase in the guideline: "quotes gained secondhand."

 

I think they're referring to quotes the reporters didn't hear. Weekly press conferences or pre-game meetings where reporters spilt up the transcriptions don't apply. I believe they're addressing things like trading quotes from one-on-one interviews.

 

most intelligent thought posted in some time chick.

convenience is nice, being a lapdog and not realizing it is shit.

 

Actually, it does happen. If I Google my real name, I'll get about a million hits off two recent AP baseball stories where I got an "also contributed" credit for having provided quotes, and it's happened a few times before. Basically, it happens on big national stories where the stringer puts forth some extra effort.

 

But by their guidelines, it should happen on routine stories where the stringer contributes standard effort. They're basically saying everyone should source quotes, but they don't do it.