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Reporters and misquotes should not be like peas in a pod.

By Marks & Katz, LLC

  Image from Library of Congress's website. As I have said previously, journalists are fallible humans, so lawyers should resist the temptation to treat them as confidants.  One reason to beware of talking with journalists about a client's case is the risk of being misquoted, whether by direct misquote (e.g., the reporter writing that the lawyer said his "client is guilty" when actually the lawyer said his "client is not guilty," or by being quoted out of context (e.g., where the reporter quotes the lawyer as saying "All the suspects are guilty," where the lawyer actually says "All the suspects are guilty except for my client." Sometimes a reporter misquotes a lawyer based on what the lawyer says in court, rather than on the basis of an interview, which means that merely declining an on-the-record interview does not automatically protect against misquotes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Underdog on April 04, 2008 (boomark / email).