{"id":274,"date":"2009-05-12T14:18:34","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T18:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/05\/12\/he-said-she-said\/"},"modified":"2009-05-12T14:18:34","modified_gmt":"2009-05-12T18:18:34","slug":"he-said-she-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/05\/12\/he-said-she-said\/","title":{"rendered":"He Said, She Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been writing for awhile about my frustration with \u201che said, she said\u201d journalism. (Here<\/a> and here<\/a> are examples.)  Press Think\u2019s Jay Rosen discussed the problem last month<\/a> \u2013 extensively \u2013 as he is wont to do.<\/p>\n

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[W]hat are the advantages of the newswriting formula I have derisively labeled \u201che said, she said?\u201d Rather than treat it as a problem, approach it as a kind of solution to quandaries common on the reporting trail. When, for example, a screaming fight breaks out at the city council meeting and you don\u2019t know who\u2019s right, but you have to report it, he said, she said<\/em> makes the story instantly writable. Not a problem, but a solution to the reporter\u2019s (deadline!) problem.<\/p>\n

When you kinda sorta recall that Hank Greenberg is a guy who shouldn\u2019t necessarily get the benefit of the doubt in a dispute like this, but you don\u2019t know the history well enough to import it into your account without a high risk of error, and yet you have to produce an error-free account for tomorrow\u2019s paper because your editor expects of you just that\u2026 he said, she said gets you there.<\/p>\n

Or when the Congressional Budget Office issues a report<\/a> on ethanol and what it\u2019s costing us in higher food prices, the AP reporter to whom the story is given could just summarize the report, but that\u2019s a little too much like stenography, isn\u2019t it? So the AP adds reactions from organized groups that are primed to react.<\/p>\n

This is a low cost way of going beyond the report itself. A familiar battle of interpretations follows, with critics of ethanol underlining the costs and supporters stressing the benefits. Of course, the AP could try to sort out those competing claims, but that would take more time and background knowledge than it probably has available for a simple \u201cCBO report issued\u201d story. \u201cSupporters of ethanol disagreed, saying the report was good news\u2026\u201d gets the job done.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rosen thinks the times they are a changin\u2019, and cites The Washington Post\u2019s Dan Froomkin, who argues for more \u201cbullshit calling.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It takes a while to slog through, but as usual, Rosen covers all the bases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been writing for awhile about my frustration with \u201che said, she said\u201d journalism. (Here and here are examples.)  Press Think\u2019s Jay Rosen discussed the problem last month \u2013 extensively \u2013 as he is wont to do. [W]hat are the advantages of the newswriting formula I have derisively labeled \u201che said, she said?\u201d Rather than… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}