Barbara Latterner wrote:

<What of an author "quoting" people without indicating the
source?  I was totally under the impression that these people quoted in
the
article had been interviewed-it seemed so the way it was written.
Jeanette
asked is this an inherent risk to responding online as a professional?>

I come out of lurkdom again in regard to a journalism subject.
This is unethical journalistic behavior. A lot of these websites,
though, don't pay writers or have writers who have no training, so this
type of type happens. I think it's particularly problematic in
parenting-type sites because a lot of moms are trying to make extra
money as writers and a lot of rookie writers don't realize that there's
a code of behavior and a method of quoting people properly. For example,
if I do an email interview, I make darn sure I say that in my article.
Not everyone does, and that issue is probably debatable. What's not
debatable is that journalists have the responsibility to tell you when
they are going to use what you say (or write). In ordinary
circumstances, I can't start quoting from casual conversations (or
personal email consulting) without riling the journalism ethicists.

If you are quoted this way, you might want to consider raising a stink
with the website or the print publication. A website could remove the
offending material immediately. A print publication likely would print a
retraction. Either way, the writer would learn a lesson and be less
likely to do it again, if he or she can even get published by that
market again.

Those of us who do help via email *are* vulnerable to being quoting
improperly, but I don't think there's any practical way to reduce the
risks of this already rare occurrence. ... unles we're talking about
some sort of standard warning/disclaimer on all correspondence.

Kathleen Whitfield
lay lactation counselor
former newspaper editor and current freelance writer
Riverside, CA

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