Now THIS is reporting.

[Moland Spring]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNDUmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxMDg3MTcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2

While everyone else is waiting for Zach Johnson to finish and following Tiger and whatever, Ian O'Connor is getting Jack Fleck on the phone, he's talking to a country club guy who invested in Johnson before he went on a mini tour, and he's talking to a college teammate. How does this happen? I'm not sure. But it's impressive.
(And yes, I'm him. Ok, I'm not him. But it would be great to be him...)

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Ian's a talent, no question. Nice move, NYDN.

 

[Moderator1]

Work harder than the next guy.
Get more material than the next guy.
Don't follow the pack.

Simple formula that few follow. When you do, you get a result like that.
Nice work.

 

[Rockbottom]

Might be the only Ian I know who is worth a darn in the journalism business.

rb

 

[CapeCodder]

Ian Thomsen from SI is a good Ian.

But yes, I agree. Good move by O'Connor. God bless zabasearch.com.

 

[slappy4428]

Nice piece; worked his corners well...

 

[playthrough]

Good piece by Ian. I've read a few others today that quoted Jack Fleck, but this one was even more thorough.

Fleck must have been watching the tournament on Sunday afternoon and thinking "my phone is going to ring off the hook tonight..."

 

[The Rules of Golf]

Might be the only Ian I know who is worth a darn in the journalism business.

rb

Nice.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Kicked ass on the Gene Banks story back in the day.

 

[jgmacg]

Did you image-Google "Elizabethan rock codpiece?" I bow to the new master.

Oh. And a terrifically well-reported piece, too.

 

[boots]

Baby Ian showing the lazy folk how to do it. Nothing new there.

 

[John]

I liked the story. However, he blew it for me with this quote: "If [Johnson's] not Superman," said Zach's friend and playing partner, Vaughn Taylor, "he's Superman's brother."

I've read that quote in several articles and in all the others, Taylor was talking about Tiger, not Johnson.

 

[ShelbyFoote]

I liked the story. However, he blew it for me with this quote: "If [Johnson's] not Superman," said Zach's friend and playing partner, Vaughn Taylor, "he's Superman's brother."

I've read that quote in several articles and in all the others, Taylor was talking about Tiger, not Johnson.

That is true: Vaughn was definitely talking about Tiger.

 

[jaredk]

I liked the story. However, he blew it for me with this quote: "If [Johnson's] not Superman," said Zach's friend and playing partner, Vaughn Taylor, "he's Superman's brother."

I've read that quote in several articles and in all the others, Taylor was talking about Tiger, not Johnson.

That is true: Vaughn was definitely talking about Tiger.

Wrong.

I just did a Nexis search. EVERY story from Baltimore to Kansas City to Calgary quoted Taylor specifically talking about Johnson. The quote even produced Johnson's definitive quote when asked who is he: "I'm Zach Johnson from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I'm a normal guy."

Terrific work by O'Connor.

 

[NCScrub]

The Taylor quote was about Woods. I was in the roped-in quote area beyond 18 when Taylor said it, and I asked another reporter present his thoughts to make sure and he said it was definitely about Woods. The press conference question posed to Johnson was asked in a "Taylor said this about you" kind of way, so that's why he responded the way he did.

 

[ShelbyFoote]

The time I heard it, it was asked about Tiger. I was standing right there. Maybe he gave a similar answer later about Johnson to different reporters -- I'm not sure. I think the confusion might lie in the fact when Johnson was asked about it, the reporter said that that's what Taylor said about him.

But Taylor definitely said it about Tiger. I'm sure of that.

Either way, it was a great reporting job ... not saying otherwise.

 

[jaredk]

So, everybody had it wrong. (Everybody in my Nexis search, anyway.) OK. I've seen it happen a hundred times, a quote mis-heard and repeated into a question that, already once-wrong, produces an answer twice-removed from the starting fact. One of the dangers of big-event reporting.

 

[NCScrub]

Part of the problem was probably with taking the quote off a quote sheet. Not many people were actually around Taylor, but the quote sheet had this great line and it wasn't clear from that if he was talking about Tiger or Johnson.

At a college hoops game earlier this year, a player on the losing team had a great line. It ended up as the lead quote in the AP story. Problem was, the quote sheet misidentified who made the comment. So the AP story also had the wrong attribution. Could happen to anyone, I imagine. It's worthwhile to check quote sheets at big events, but the accuracy is always an issue.

 

[Moderator1]

If you use something from a quote sheet, you better make damn sure you know and trust the people producing that sheet.

 

[jaredk]

Part of the problem was probably with taking the quote off a quote sheet. . . . It's worthwhile to check quote sheets at big events, but the accuracy is always an issue.

Sounds about right to me. I trust the press room stenographer quotes more than I trust the woman scribbling behind the scorer's hut at Augusta. Mostly, I don't trust any gang-bang quotes I didn't hear and maybe half of those I think I heard.