Don’t Complain about Reporter’s Choices of Quotes

Here are three fundamental rules when dealing with the press: 1. Reporters get to pick the questions. 2. You get to choose your answers. 3. Reporters get to pick which part of your answers to put in quotes.

Even a media veteran as savvy as White House Press Secretary Tony Snow occasionally forgets this. Here is a quote from an October, 2006 New York Times:

“In an interview in his West Wing office, Snow readily acknowledges that ‘naughty e-mails’ did not capture the gravity of Foley’s graphic exchanges with teenage boys. ‘I shouldn’t have used the words,’ Snow says. ‘I’m not going to defend having used the words.’ But, he says, ‘I did six interviews that morning and people picked on one-half of one line.’”

To his credit, Snow acknowledges that he is to blame for his poor word choice. However, he undermines is semi-apology by trying to claim that he only said stupid stuff for one half of one line whereas he said intelligent stuff for six full interviews. Snow should know this is how the game is played.

Saying uninteresting things for six interviews or six hours or sixty hours is never an acceptable excuse for saying something dumb for six seconds. Just ask anyone who has ever been featured as the “bad guy” on “60 Minutes” on TV and in the media, every single word and phrase counts.