Carlos Gomez upset by newspaper's use of quote

[torts]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15528312/carlos-gomez-houston-astros-discusses-feeling-disrespected-newspaper-column

 

yesh.... such an easy thing for a writer to avoid having happen, just sloppy writing...

[MrTPlush]

such an easy thing for a writer to avoid having happen

 

Yah the problem is the writer wanted to do that.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Wow. That's seriously bush. Reporters "clean up" quotes from foreign players all the time to avoid that very thing. There's nothing wrong with doing it (in fact it's just a courtesy, for this very reason). What a bush move.

[Thurston Fluff]

I agree it was bush. I disagree they should clean up a quote though. A quote should be a direct word for word translation. There is enough trouble these says with quotes being taken out of context to start taking liberties with what is actually said. I think if the quote doesn't look or feel right due to language barriers, context or whatever then don't use direct quotes. Paraphrase and say you're paraphrasing due to language barriers. Gomez always seemed like a thoughtful person and certainly didn't deserve to be made to look stupid like that.

[molitor fan]

Wow, thank you for calling this to our attention....had not heard of this...Gomez is 100 percent correct to be pissed...the writer is bushleague...would have never done this to a player ops'ing above 800

[BrewersSuperCollector]

I applaud Gomez for not asking for the writer to be fired. Too much in todays society do people want to see others fired.

[Invader3K]

I thought the era of that kind of sports writing was long past. I remember reading about how certain players back in the 1960s called on sports writers to stop using phonetic spellings when quoting Latin players in the past. "I hit de ball," etc.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I thought the era of that kind of sports writing was long past. I remember reading about how certain players back in the 1960s called on sports writers to stop using phonetic spellings when quoting Latin players in the past. "I hit de ball," etc.

 

 

Imagine if a writer were to write a quote on Allen Iverson phonetically? How would that go over? Carlos had every reason to be upset with how this was handled.

[molitor fan]

 

this is the scumbag that continues to rail on Gomez after Carlos fought back, yet this Kaplan dip still will not address his comments....A tremendous coward

[DuWayne Steurer]

 

this is the scumbag that continues to rail on Gomez after Carlos fought back, yet this Kaplan dip still will not address his comments....A tremendous coward

 

What's the history? I guess I'm missing something. I see he's got a bunch of negative tweets about/towards Gomez, but I don't know what the history is that you're referencing.

[dlk9s]

Wow, that writer is terrible. He takes potshots at Gomez whenever he can.

[endaround]

I agree it was bush. I disagree they should clean up a quote though. A quote should be a direct word for word translation. There is enough trouble these says with quotes being taken out of context to start taking liberties with what is actually said. I think if the quote doesn't look or feel right due to language barriers, context or whatever then don't use direct quotes. Paraphrase and say you're paraphrasing due to language barriers. Gomez always seemed like a thoughtful person and certainly didn't deserve to be made to look stupid like that.

 

Every single quote published in a newspaper is cleaned up. And not just from athletes. We speak in an entirely different way than we write. So even in conversation a given stametn seems fine it can look ridiculous in print.

[SRB]

Somehow it seems worse given that this guy definitely wouldn't have quoted Gomez the way he did if Gomez was having an MVP season. It's basically "You're having a bad season and I'm mad at you, here I'll make fun of the fact that English is not your first language."

[Austin Tatious]

Let's see this writer go to another country and try to speak their language in a professional setting. He will be humbled. Guys like Gomez are well intentioned and trying to be cooperative to the press outside their native language.

[Outlander]

 

this is the scumbag that continues to rail on Gomez after Carlos fought back, yet this Kaplan dip still will not address his comments....A tremendous coward

I'm confused, Carlos Gomez kept on mentioning Brian Smith in his tweets not Jake Kaplan.

[1992casey]

Brian Smith wrote the article. I'm not sure why Kaplan is bent out of shape.

[homer]

You'd think ESPN would link to the original article.

[trwi7]

Wow. That's seriously bush. Reporters "clean up" quotes from foreign players all the time to avoid that very thing. There's nothing wrong with doing it (in fact it's just a courtesy, for this very reason). What a bush move.

 

They clean up quotes from everyone. Imagine how many "umms" or "you knows" would be in an interview with American players. Also, while he's foreign, he still speaks English, so imagine how many times "and that" would be used in an interview with Melvin if Haudricourt or McCalvy put in every single thing he said without any editing.

[1992casey]

Here's the original article:

 

Carlos Gomez knows he's a disappointment to Astros fans

 

I think the sub-headline might be worse than the actual quote itself:

 

Hey, Go-Go, bring the sexy back when you can put bat on ball

 

When you put it in terms of time frame, this almost ranks with the [cite]John Rennon's Excrusive Gloupie[/cite] article that was published in [cite]Esquire[/cite] in 1970.

[dlk9s]

Every single quote published in a newspaper is cleaned up. And not just from athletes. We speak in an entirely different way than we write. So even in conversation a given stametn seems fine it can look ridiculous in print.

I'm quoting this and not cleaning it up.

[MrTPlush]

Wait...people had to pay to read that? There is a dissapointment.

[1992casey]

The article wasn't behind a paywall when I posted the link yesterday. [cite]The Houston Chronicle[/cite] might make articles available for a day or two then require payment to access them after that.

[1992casey]

This take on the situation from awfulannouncing.com more or less covers all bases.

 

Carlos Gomez says Chronicle columnist used his quotes “to ridicule me”

 

Using a player’s quotes to ridicule him is highly problematic, and avoiding that is probably more important than a universal policy on how much reporters should or should not clean up quotations.

I think the sub-headline on Smith's article made his intention to ridicule Gómez pretty apparent.

[Thurston Fluff]

I agree it was bush. I disagree they should clean up a quote though. A quote should be a direct word for word translation. There is enough trouble these says with quotes being taken out of context to start taking liberties with what is actually said. I think if the quote doesn't look or feel right due to language barriers, context or whatever then don't use direct quotes. Paraphrase and say you're paraphrasing due to language barriers. Gomez always seemed like a thoughtful person and certainly didn't deserve to be made to look stupid like that.

 

Every single quote published in a newspaper is cleaned up. And not just from athletes. We speak in an entirely different way than we write. So even in conversation a given stametn seems fine it can look ridiculous in print.

 

They clean up quotes to take out non words and unintelligible noises and such. usually with ... on each side. It is more problematic to change word order or phrases. Given how often we hear people claim they were misquoted or taken out of context I think it should be apparent for the need to keep quotes as close the the actual words and phrases as possible and still be readable. When a situation like this comes up they just shouldn't use direct quotes. There is nothing wrong with saying you are paraphrasing for clarity due to Gomez speaking a second language. There is something wrong with saying it is a quote when it really isn't. It creates a vague, grey area where the reader doesn't know if the writer took liberties with the meaning or what. I am not defending what the writer did in this instance. It was bush. I think the direct quotes created a false impression of Gomez and it was intentional. A quote should never be used for that at all.

[craigharmann]

Here in Houston, we're ready for GoGo to be gonegone. I loved him as a Brewer and had high hopes for him and Fiers. Last Fiers was helpful, GoGo nono. This season, they both started horrible and Fiers has marginally improved, while GoGo has gotten worse. I mean, there's talk of cutting him, which I think is a good thing. Luhnow even said in talking about him on sports radio last week, something to the effect of his production isn't what we're expecting for him to stay on the team. Bush move by Smith, and what I've read of his stuff and heard him on the radio, I like him. But no one will do everything perfectly.