» Quotation and misquotation

Quotation and misquotation

July 14th, 2010

I was quoted on a site called sify.com saying this: “The World Cup made us crazy. Money was spent carefully. I think the government will have a tough time in maintaining the stadiums. They will soon turn into white elephants,” said Anton Harber, professor at the University of Witwatersrand. I did not know when and where I might have said such babble, nor did I remember ever speaking to a reporter named Abishek Roy.

I emailed Abishek and he told me he took the quote from a site called minnpost.com, where I found this: “I think everyone knows that the money we spent on stadiums was crazy,” said Anton Harber, a prominent South African journalist and professor at the University of Witwatersrand. “But it did teach us that we can build big, beautiful things.”

It is only slightly less odd, but something I can admit to probably saying (as part of a longer conversation). But Mr Roy found no need to explain how the one quote morphed into the other. He answered my objection by saying, “To be frank after reading the article I thought you were the best person to be quoted on this issue.”

He obviously didn’t think that I was the best person to be quoted on this accurately.

Anyway, he has apologised, I have asked for it to be corrected, and when it is, I can bury the issue - and hope it does not come back via the internet to haunt me (as these things usually do).

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Online

1 Comment Add your own

1. Thabo | August 10th, 2010 at 2:58 pm

I don’t believe those words can come out of your mouth. You taught me a lot

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Anton Harber: Media

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio

Daily newspaper sales, South Africa
(Ave sales Jul-Dec)
1960 - 681 053 (Population 17,3m)
1970 - 723 566 (22m)
1980 - 803 229 (27,5m)
1990 - 1 214 396 (35,2m)
2000 - 1 117 886 (44m)
2006 - 1 600 000 (47,3m)
2011 - 1 310 000 (49m)

(Sources: ABC and nationmaster.com)

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Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011)

Diesploot: Of Frogs and Fractals, a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg, 4 August 2011

Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa’s Investigative Journalism (Jacana, 2101), edited by Anton Harber and Margaret Renn

Introduction - The Troublemakers: An account of the rise of a new wave of investigative journalism in South Africa.

What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic, edited by Kristin Palitza, Natalie Ridgard, Helen Struthers and Anton Harber (Fanele, 2010)