Tuesday, January 22, 2008
If you are going to quote someone, go ahead and actually quote them
There’s a write up in the Boston Herald’s blog section about things San Diego Chargers center Nick Hardwick supposedly said about England Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour. It’s written by Patriots beat writer John Tomase. It includes “quotes” attributed to Harwick. Things he supposedly said after the game about Seymour.
Even though it was written for the Boston Herald’s blog and not the actually newspaper, it’s content was heavily edited. It was so heavily edited, it’s hard to understand exactly what Hardwick said.
From Tomase’s post:
“There are 10 (bleeping) good players on that team,” Hardwick said. “But Richard Seymour is a dirty, cheap, little pompous (expletive).”
Hardwick was only getting started.
He’s cheap and dirty and the head man just let him get away with it the whole time,” Hardwick said. “They’ve got 10 great players on that team and when Jarvis Green comes on the field, they’ve got 11 great players who compete how you’re supposed to play. But Richard Seymour is the biggest (expletive) I’ve ever played.”
Hardwick said Seymour usually plays this way, but that he, “took it it to another level today.”
“Head slapping, foot stomping in the pile, running by and throwing punches in your back,” Hardwick said. “He’s a (expletive). … There were a lot of things he did. There’s a field goal where he was stomping feet. Who stomps feet? And the officials weren’t doing anything about it. He plays like a punk.”
OK. I’m fairly certain Hardwick didn’t say “bleeping” or “expletive”. Either quote the man or don’t. By editing the quote with words such as “bleeping” or “expletive“, it forces the reader to use their imagination to come up with the missing words.
It’s quite possible for the reader to actually come up with worse words then were used. For example, Tomase writes that Hardwick said that Seymour is a “dirty, cheap, little pompous (expletive).” The possibilities here are endless. For all I know he called him anything from a gnome to a racial slur. Without any context, there isn’t any way to actually tell.
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“There are 10 (fatherfucking) good players on that team,” Hardwick said. “But Richard Seymour is a dirty, cheap, little pompous (baby rapist).”
What a fun game! Come up with your own!
Hmmm- like this?
“There are 10 (retarded) good players on that team,” Hardwick said. “But Richard Seymour is a dirty, cheap, little pompous (asshole-fingering douche-knuckle).”
That is fun!
It’s (testicle-draggingly) bad form to use a quirky word like “bleeping” and then revert to the more conventional “expletive” in the same quote. John Tomase is a (shit-slathered) poor writer.
Jesse Jace wrote:
Yeah, but he is one handsome looking man!
IT’S PAT!
http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/9/7/2/2/13142279-13142287-large.jpg