OK to use media days pool quotes later?

I was having this discussion with a colleague and thought I'd toss it out there to the SportsJournalists.com masses to see what you think.

If a staffer/freelancer wasn't able to make it to, say, SEC media days last month but is writing some preseason features on SEC teams, would it be OK to use transcripts or video of the media day coaches' pool interview sessions to grab quotes relevant to the stories? And if so, do they have to be labeled as "said at a press conference" or something of the sort, or can they just be run as you normally would?

I said it was fine to use them if need be, because people who were there can certainly use them, and you shouldn't be punished as a member of the media just because you couldn't be at the press conference in person. If you can get one-on-one interviews for your stories, do that. But as a last-ditch effort, it seems acceptable to me to run them normally.

My friend said it's misleading to run them like that because doing so implies that you conducted the interview or at least were there at the time. If you have to use them, he thinks they should be labeled as such, but you shouldn't do it at all, especially if it's a month later when the season is about to start.

Thoughts?

 

I think Moddy makes a good point. Something can obviously change too after things get going which could change the meaning of the quotes. A disclaimer is good.

 

Really, it's simple. "Coach so-and-so said at the Big We're Not Sure of the Number Conference preseason Media Day" with the opening quote, and then all subsequent quotes are covered unless he said them someplace else, which you then identify.

 

Just don't put a dateline on the story. That tells the reader you weren't there. I think we're going over the top about attribution these days.

 

I would still label, if nothing else then just to cover myself. I would venture to say most readers don't understand the concept of the whole dateline thing.

 

Echoing the others' sentiments: Identify where the statements were made -- and when, if necessary -- in the interest of transparency, but feel free to use them. That's why the conferences hold these events.

 

Agree with what Moddy said.

 

The whole reason SIDs have media days and put out the quote sheets and stuff is for us to use them.

One conference I cover had a conference call media day last week. Lots of topics covered. Got far more stuff than I can jam into one story. Yes, I did take my own notes. But as anyone who hs ever done phone interviews can attest, people talk far faster than anyone can write, so the quote sheets are helpful to go back and verify stuff.

 

ALSO
From AP style book: It's news conference, not press conference

 

What if at the Big Ten Media Days you, as a reporter for a newspaper in Indiana, interview a quarterback from Illinois. The week of the Illinois-Purdue game, you write a feature on said quarterback for your newspaper in Indiana. You did the interview in person.
Do you have to say you obtained the comments at Media Days 3 months earlier? Or do you just write the feature? Your organization spent the money to go to Media Days. You did the interview yourself. Do you have to tell the reader the quotes were obtained many weeks ago? I do not think you need to do that but I could be mistaken. If you need to do that, then there was no reason to waste your time and publication's money (car, hotel, food costs) doing the interview in the first place. If you need to do that, then at Media Days you should just have been lazy and done a couple stories for daily.