"It was taken out of context."

[bigpern23]

Caught a blurb on the local news about the latest celebrity controversy (::)), as Jennifer Aniston apparently backtracks on talking **** about Angelina Jolie.

The short story: Aniston told Vogue that Angelina stealing Brad Pitt was, "so uncool" (boy, she really must have loved Brad to summon that kind of anger). Now she says the quote was "taken out of context."

That, of course, is bull****, but it is being reported now, much the way it is reported every time some athlete, coach, celebrity or politician says something stupid and they know they can't take it back completely. So, instead of standing by their statements, they always say, "it was taken out of context" and "I can't believe Podunk Press would do that" (in Aniston's case it was, "I can't believe Vogue would go so tabloid").

So my problem, I guess is, how come reporters never ask the obvious follow-up - "How was it taken out of context? What did you originally say?" Instead, we just let them say it was taken out of context and blame the media for their stupidity, and then - and here's the kicker - we report it!

No wonder the public doesn't believe in us anymore. Every time a famous person says we took a quote out of context, we tell the public that we ****ed up, even when 98 percent of the time, we didn't. We do enough ****ing up on our own. It's time we stop letting famous people act like we're the ones who ****ed up when they couldn't keep their mouths shut.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Fixed.

 

[I Digress]

Totally agree. This should be like preaching to the choir, but then again, the reporters are the ones doing it, huh?

 

[bigpern23]

Fixed.

Hey, quit taking my quotes out of context, ****er!

 

[forever_town]

Fixed.

Hey, quit taking my quotes out of context, ****er!

How was your quote taken out of context?

 

[bigpern23]

Fixed.

Hey, quit taking my quotes out of context, ****er!

How was your quote taken out of context?

Well, I guess it was just taken completely out of existence. Not sure which is worse. :)

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Fixed.

Hey, quit taking my quotes out of context, ****er!

How was your quote taken out of context?

Well, I guess it was just taken completely out of existence. Not sure which is worse. :)

I dunno. I think I captured the relevant part of your post! :)

 

[Ace]

I assume that most of these "taken out of contest" responses are statements or releases in which the press is not given an opportunity to follow up.

 

[sg86]

Normally, I'd actually side with the celeb. But this is Vogue, not some tabloid.

 

[bigpern23]

I assume that most of these "taken out of contest" responses are statements or releases in which the press is not given an opportunity to follow up.

I disagree ... I think you see plenty of them on ESPN highlights and such and the Aniston one, in particular, was given during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Fixed.

Hey, quit taking my quotes out of context, ****er!

How was your quote taken out of context?

Well, I guess it was just taken completely out of existence. Not sure which is worse. :)

I dunno. I think I captured the relevant part of your post! :)

That's it, TSP, you're on the list. And you don't want to be on the list!

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Unless you run a full transcript, all quotes are taken out of context.

Most athletes and celebrities don't even know what it means, they just use it as an excuse when someone calls them out on something they said.

I hate Jennifer Aniston with a passion, but I think calling someone "uncool" for stealing her husband is pretty tame.

 

[bigpern23]

Normally, I'd actually side with the celeb. But this is Vogue, not some tabloid.

Honest question, SG: are you a journalist?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Conversation I once had with a NFL coach

Coach: "Player X said the quote in your story today was "off the record"

Me: "I have the tape of the whole conversation if you want to hear it."

Coach: "(Laughs) That's OK, I believe you, but that's what he said."

Me: "Do you think he knows what off the record means?

Coach: "Not a chance in hell."

 

[bigpern23]

Conversation I once had with a NFL coach

Coach: "Player X said the quote in your story today was "off the record"

Me: "I have the tape of the whole conversation if you want to hear it."

Coach: "(Laughs) That's OK, I believe you, but that's what he said."

Me: "Do you think he knows what off the record means?

Coach: "Not a chance in hell."

Haha ... sounds about right for most. I recently covered a Thanksgiving Day game between teams in different divisions, so the game had no real meaning outside of being a rivalry game. Both teams had playoff games coming up a few days later.

Another reporter asked one coach - whose team was down 21-0, but rallied within 21-20 before falling short on the 2-point conversion - if coming back that far helped the team's confidence at all.

Coach says, "Off the record, you don't want to come out and get smacked around."

All I could think was, "Why the hell would he care if that's 'off the record?'" And, since neither of us agreed that it was "off the record," I ran the quote anyway.

Coach hasn't called, so apparently he's in the same boat as your Player X.

 

[Twoback]

I once did a 20-minute interview with a radio reporter on a particular subject regarding basketball.
During those 20 minutes, I advocated one position for about 19 minutes and 45 seconds -- making my stance clear in no uncertain terms.
During the other 15 seconds, I made reference tangentially to a related issue, speaking a sentence that could be construed as me supporting the opposite side of the original issue.
Guess which quote the reporter used, and made it seem like I was taking the exact opposition position from what I'd made clear? On an internationally distributed program, no less.
Don't say this never happens. Just don't.

 

[Editude]

Not a big Aniston fan either, but I thought it was pretty cool that she reacted like, well, a real person with the "uncool" comment. Ripping the messenger afterward was lame.

 

[Double J]

Jennifer Aniston should equip herself with a knife and a Louisville Slugger and pull a Carrie Underwood on the Pitt-Jolie fleet of vehicles. Invite the paparazzi.

And keep both tools handy in case Jolie emerges and tries to pretend she really is Lara Croft.

 

[Flash]

I once did a 20-minute interview with a radio reporter on a particular subject regarding basketball.
During those 20 minutes, I advocated one position for about 19 minutes and 45 seconds -- making my stance clear in no uncertain terms.
During the other 15 seconds, I made reference tangentially to a related issue, speaking a sentence that could be construed as me supporting the opposite side of the original issue.
Guess which quote the reporter used, and made it seem like I was taking the exact opposition position from what I'd made clear? On an internationally distributed program, no less.
Don't say this never happens. Just don't.

I teach my spokespeople that they should speak succinctly and stay on message.

Did you ever consider that the only interesting thing you said was in the 15-second clip and that the fault may be your own for being a big, dull dud?

 

[Twoback]

You know, Buck, I would think this board should be able to rise above mindless defense of every single crap thing reporters do in this business.
We laugh at all the knee-jerk apologists for athletes who are clowns, but we never have any interest in learning how to actually do this job better.
No wonder it's going down the tubes.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Tough to shake the defensive mode, though. And it isn't just the Luddite, Know-Nothing Yahoos on the attack.
You look at most episodes of Law and Order, there's an embedded attack on the press lurking in there, somewhere.