Had a situation yesterday in which I had a lovely interview with a nice person and that lovely interview ended rather awkwardly. Why? Because of this line: “We really can’t approve your story for publication unless we’re allowed to see it first.” Uh, no.
Her issue is this: while she is high on the food chain in her company, she is not at the top. Whatever she said to me had to be walked through an approval process on her side. That’s okay for them, but I cannot stress in enough ways why that’s not my issue.
My issue is this: These people were kind enough to grant an interview based on my short deadline, but at no point in our email conversations (and there were many) was it ever mentioned that they were about to put the corporate foot down. I understand legal departments. I understand company image. But there is no way on this earth that an interview subject or his or her respective company will ever see a story before it hits print without the editor’s approval. No way. No how. Never.
It’s a breach of journalistic ethics, and it’s just plain short-sighted of any company to expect that. If you don’t sign my check, you don’t see the galleys. Period.
I had the same situation two weeks ago with another source, only this woman understood that she’d see only her quotes and that the deadline was in fact set in stone and she’d have to move quickly if she wanted to change what she’d said. That she was even seeing quotes was a professional courtesy and not a requirement on my part.
Only once in my career did I have an advertiser take it over my head, and he lived to regret it. I was senior editor at the time, and in the conversations leading up to my interviewing his people, this PR person kept insisting he’d be looking over the copy for approval. I kept repeating after each insistance, “Daniel, I can’t do that. It’s against company policy, and it’s against journalistic ethical standards.” It became my mantra that he ignored. Since I was sitting in a position in which this man had to cater to my requirements in order to get press, I figured he’d give it up eventually.
Not even close. He closed our interview in the same way. In the same way, I reminded him it’s not happening. I wrote the story, sent it over to the managing editor, and went on with my day. He sent an email. Maybe it was the fact that there it was in print and he couldn’t ignore it, but my last refusal sent him through the roof, or rather it sent him into my voice mail 14 times in one afternoon, and into the editor-in-chief’s email and voice mail four times. The publisher was lucky – he received one call that unfortunately he answered. He reiterated our policy, told him to stop cursing my name (this man was unbelievably rude), and came directly to my office and apologized. Here was an advertiser trying desperately to control the copy in our magazine. Alas, he did not win. If he had, I’d have rethought my career right then and there.
If you’re ever faced with this situation, and I guarantee you will be, you’ll have to make a judgment call. In some cases, it’s perfectly acceptable to show quotes to your interview subject. It does depend, however, on the policy of the publication you’re working for, so don’t agree to do so if you’re not sure. Just agree to check with the editor. However, under no circumstances are you to show that copy to anyone without the express consent of the editor in charge. I can tell you from experience that each time I gave interview subjects just the quotes, 99.9 percent of the time they had changes (and minor ones). Because I have a habit of giving them the line prior to their quote for context, I’ve even had some ballsy enough to “edit” that line, too.
To which I laugh and say, “Not happening, sucker!”
Sounds like you handled this situation very well. It’s always awkward when interview subjects ask to see the finished product before it hits the press. Showing them only their quotations is more than fair.
I wish I had, Debra. She’s back today insisting I send it to her marketing department. I referred her to the editor. He’ll straighten her out. There comes a time when nothing you say singularly will work. That’s when you pull in the reinforcements.
My position is, if you’re too much of a coward to stand by your words and whatever filter the interviewer brings, don’t do the interview.
Granted, there are plenty of so-called journalists who make up quotes — but there are also actions you can take when this happens. I once had an “interviewer” publish an entire piece, quotes and all, which was interesting, since I’d never met or spoken to the person.
I had a few words with the editor in that instance.
I’ve also been interviewed by someone and read the interview and thought, “who is this person? I’m not like that” — but the quotes were all correct –we simply had completely different memories of the whole experience! And since it was correct, I kept my mouth shut. After all, I agreed to do the interview.