Don’t Quote Me-PLEASE

IT’S ALWAYS NICE to be quoted in a prestigious newspaper like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe or the San Francisco Chronicle. A few friends may see it and comment. Most people won’t notice or even read the article. But of course, there are always some (hopefully more than a few) business associates who’ll see it and, perhaps, take you more seriously.

At least that’s the way it used to be for me. Today it’s fast becoming “I’ll talk, I’ll talk, but don’t quote me.”

I’m sure many of you have been following the current brouhaha in the press regarding certain reportorial liberties. Steven Brill writing about his interview with independent counsel Kenneth Starr in the first issue of Brill’s Content magazine is probably the most touted of these. (Who really said what to whom and why?)

This was in headlines shortly after a report that a New Republic staff writer, Stephen Glass, had fabricated all or part of 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for them. It was followed by revelations that The Boston Globe’s controversial columnist, Patricia Smith, had resigned because of fabrications in her reporting. More accusations followed, and newspapers across the country rushed to explain or defend (depending on how you read it) their fact-checking. A June 22 New York Times article noted that fact-checking differs considerably among the country’s top journalistic efforts. But one thing came through to me: The Wall Street Journal claimed an article goes through varying numbers of editors and that “A page-one story can have five, sometimes six levels of editors.”

This quote hit me hard, because only four days earlier I had become the victim of a Wall Street Journal writer whose story appeared on the front page with the headline, “It’s My Party. I’ll Cry if I Want to, Cry if I Want to, Cry if I…”

The headline sounded so nutty, I almost passed it up. However, as I skimmed the column certain words caught my eye. I saw “R.S.V.P.” repeated over and over and remembered a recent interview with a WSJ reporter who had started out by asking me about the use of R.S.V.P. on a direct mail outer envelope.

So I kept reading and discovered some of the worst misquoting I’d ever experienced. I’ve had some over the years, mind you. But this was hard to believe.

To begin with, the reporter had called to discuss direct mail-not personal mail, and whether or not invitations worked. This is a creative approach in direct marketing that I strongly endorse because invitations or the invitational approach is often very successful. The R.S.V.P. also works on outers and in the invitational package. I discussed this at length, mentioning all other aspects of successful envelope design and so forth. I also asked, as I usually do, “Are you taping this?” The reporter said it was just fine and there was no need to tape.

That should have been a clue. After some 15 minutes of productive interviewing on direct mail techniques and successes, the reporter asked in closing if I found that personal invitations today offer problems in getting response. We agreed briefly that although invitations pay off in direct mail, truly personal invitations are having a tough time. I added I was lucky as the major party my husband and I threw was a musical that, because of its broad popularity, usually drew good response and attendance. (This comment took less than five seconds.) In the story it came out as follows, and I quote:

It probably also doesn’t help that a lot of people throw boring parties and, worse, disguise potentially good ones with lousy invitations, says Joan Throckmorton, a Pound Ridge, NY mailing consultant. Ms. Throckmorton, a member of the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame, is an advocate of thinking bold, starting with the envelope. “The bigger it is, the more impressive,” she says. One recommendation: a 9-by-12-inch pouch, maybe the color of goldenrod (the knock-you-out-yellow used for football jerseys).

Ms. Throckmorton also suggests adding a bit of seduction and tease to R.S.V.P.s. She says she gets a nearly perfect response rate to the annual wine and classical-music parties she throws by adding the phrase, “Seats are limited” after the R.S.V.P. On the other hand, her parties also have a reputation, in the upstate New York social scene, for being fun. “Some poor people just don’t do popular parties,” Ms. Throckmorton says.

I SAID WHAT? No wonder the reporter didn’t need to tape. Nor feel the need to tell me this wasn’t about direct marketing.

The only good thing about such misquoting is that hardly anyone will pick up on my comments, while Kenneth Starr, Steven Brill and several well-known columnists are indeed more vulnerable.

It’s nice to be quoted. It’s not nice to be misquoted.

Journalism needs quotes to be credible. But to get such quotes we need responsible journalists. Or in the future more and more of us will say, “Don’t quote me!”