Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson is out with a new book today. She’s called it “Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts.” We haven’t read it, but we feel pretty safe assuming it’s supposed to make journalists look good.
We’re not journalists ourselves, and we don’t have much sympathy for most of them these days, but we can understand why they’d be facepalming over Abramson’s, um, journalistic technique:
please, please, please. young reporters, do not do this. do not, not not not not not do this. especially today. this is a terrible idea. https://t.co/2ETX6ojmLo pic.twitter.com/yziSvKU4mo
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) February 5, 2019
this stresses me out. trump literally just said his intelligence chiefs were "totally misquoted" and that was with THE ENTIRE THING ON VIDEO. now here's a powerful journalist saying, "I do not record. I've never recorded. I'm a very fast note-taker."
I'M STRESSED.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) February 5, 2019
i just grabbed a pillow to scream into it but i relied on my photographic memory and i don't remember what i said.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) February 5, 2019
Oh man.
*whispers* Also, how does a photographic memory help you remember something you heard?
— Emily Dreyfuss (@EmilyDreyfuss) February 5, 2019
Good question.
maybe they…quoted her wrong
— Jill Twiss (@jilltwiss) February 5, 2019
Snort.
Boy it's a real mystery how all those inaccuracies ended up in Jill Abramson's book https://t.co/ablSaIq5fV
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 5, 2019
holy crap Jill Abramson was a terrible reporter! https://t.co/REjMzZaFi6
— Daniel Foster (@DanFosterType) February 5, 2019
Well, at least she’s confirming what we already knew.
this is really dangerous advice…sigh.
— drew olanoff (@yoda) February 5, 2019
This is insane. Record everything! https://t.co/PDipxGK2Yq
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) February 5, 2019
I used to type interviews on the fly, but if you think you can do it in shorthand with 100 percent accuracy, you're insaaaaaane. At best, you lose the cadence of the person's speech. At worst … https://t.co/jkhAlUtFL7
— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella) February 5, 2019
I cannot stress how correct @SopanDeb is here. RECORD EVERYTHING. Your job is to relay exactly what someone said, your memory will fail you. Your brain will transpose words, it will confuse things, you are human. Recording is your fail safe and your protection. 1/2 https://t.co/VsEBR55y8I
— Kelsey Snell (@kelsey_snell) February 5, 2019
I carry a giant microphone everywhere I go these days. But before I did, I carried an iPhone w/voice memo app or a $20 recorder, or both. You know what? Even when I was transcribing exactly, sometimes I'd miss a word or get confused. But I could verify and fix before pubbing. 2/2
— Kelsey Snell (@kelsey_snell) February 5, 2019
Especially since folks have come out and said Jill Abramson got facts wrong in her book. This is *terrible* advice & anyone who thinks your memory serves you well as a reporter should write without looking at notes then check your draft to your notes. It’ll kill this nonsense. https://t.co/p0UeKqZKJZ
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) February 5, 2019
Credit where it’s due: Unlike many others, Jill Abramson’s owning her penchant for journalistic malpractice.
jill abramson saying she doesn't record anything makes me greatly question all of jill abramson's reporting https://t.co/BvpJoAjobY
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) February 5, 2019
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