Zebra Fact Check emailed Senior Vice President and Chair of Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute to ask about an attribution problem with the “Factually” newsletter.
Dear Kelly McBride,
The July 20, 2020 edition of Poynter’s “Factually” newsletter contains a 20-word string reproduced precisely from the
Washington Post but without quotation marks or a clear attribution.
“Factually”:
The Washington Post:
I’ve emailed those responsible for the newsletter about the problem, hoping to see the item changed with a clear attribution and a transparent explanation. I’ve received an email from Susan Benkelman (American Press Institute) sayingshe believes “it’s clear that this item came from The Washington Post, given the attribution and the link in the sub-bullet.”
Should I regard that as a convincing explanation? The bulleted item leading with “Facebook” seems credited to the Facebook source, not the Washington Post, in my view. And regardless of whether readers understand the source, a copied string 20 words in length should find itself bracketed with quotation marks.
If the item was changed only to add quotation marks, I would say readers would assume the quotation came from the Facebook statement, not the Washington Post.
In short, I find Benkelman’s explanation difficult to swallow.
As Benkelman represents the American Press Institute and not Poynter, I would like comment from the Poynter Institute, please, for publication.
I plan on publishing on or near Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Thanks for your attention to this matter.