Note to reporters

Dean Baker, in a spot-on critique of a story in The Washington Post, offers this:

Reporters don’t know what Republican politicians think, they just know what they say.

He was calling the paper out for sloppy language, and underscoring something I teach my students — both my journalism and composition students. We are not mind readers. The best we can do is report — or, in the case of composition writing, recount — what is said or written. We don’t know what people think or believe, only what they say they think or believe. It may seem a small distinction, but it is important to maintain accuracy.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

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