Poaching quotes is bad practice

For a blog commentary and an item of my own, I threw together a list of definitions that I hope to expand on and clarify here sooner or later:

• Reporters go out and interview people, then write stories.
  
• Columnists write opinions. Some columnists don't get out much. Some of them make stuff up so much that they add "I'm not making this up" here and there.
  
• Plagiarism is taking someone else's writing and presenting it as your own.
  
• Poaching is borrowing someone else's reporting and presenting it as -- just possibly -- your own. When reporters do it, they're being dumb, lazy or egotistical. When columnists do it, it's probably just columny.
  
  (I've never seen that lightweight definition of "poaching." I made it up just this minute. Here's a heavy duty version. By both definitions -- a story idea or a lifted quote -- I probably did some poaching when I was younger, for which I'm ashamed.)

It's reasonable for a publication to ban all quote poaching in news reports as a matter of professional practice, especially to keep journalists skeptical of the accuracy of other reporters' quotes -- whether in their own publication or another. (In fact, the rule might be stated as "don't trust -- or even mention the name of -- the competing publication.")

Since commentary usually involves previously reported facts or previously reported quotes, an editor working under a no-poaching policy should be alert to ask the author of a column whether he went to the extra trouble of collecting original quotes. If the author didn't, a simple Web link to the story he was commenting on would resolve the problem. (In print, a "link" would be a simple "... in comments published elsewhere" or "...the Daily Blatt reported Tuesday.")

© Copyright 2009 Bob Stepno. Last update: 7/27/09; 3:57:45 AM.