Archive for the &;Robert-Thompson&; Category
Quote Whores and TrainedSeals
June 14, 2007
Every journalist needs sources for his stories. The three-source story is the model, although abandoned in this LA Times piece on Tom Cruise.
Let&;s say you were doing a business story on the new Apple iPhone. (A flood of these are coming.) You&;d interview someone from Apple (&;the vendor&;), an industry analyst for third-party commentary, and an end user, a partner like AT&T or a competitor. Story&;s done, on to the next.
Because reporters can&;t interview themselves, they cultivate sources they can get to say the stuff they want, or at least interesting stuff. They usually have to have some standing as an &;expert&;, such as a professorship or authorship of a book. Some of these &;quote whores&; are quite promiscuous in who they talk to, and often they&;re promoting a book, their brokerage if they&;re a stock analyst, etc.
Prof. Robert Thompson of Syracuse University is considered the king of media quotes: from 2000-2002, he was quoted 972 times in articles about popular culture. One poster calls it &;&;dropping the Thompson bomb&;- something you did when you needed someone else to say the things you were thinking. &;
At the Enquirer, we had a group we&;d call &;trained seals.&; Any kind of quote you wanted, they would give you; the standard &;honorarium&; was $250 per story. The best were psychologists, usually a clinical assistant professor or higher or a book author. They&;d earn their fee spending an hour with you on the phone, as you pushed them to explain &;how your favorite color reveals your personality.&;
Posted in Apple-Computer, Journalism, Los-Angeles-Times, National-Enquirer, Robert-Thompson, tom-cruise | Leave a Comment &;