When sources want to change quotes after publication

Allen Wastler, the managing editor of CNBC.com, writes about the increasing trend of sources who want to change their quotes in online stories after they have been posted.

Wastler writes, “A consultant called up wanting to change this (paraphrased) quote — ‘Company X’s management really put their foot in their mouth’ — to something more along these lines: ‘Company X missed an opportunity for better communication.’

“If we were a newspaper the conversation, obviously, would have never happened. But this is the Internet. Press the right buttons and all sorts of things can change.

“But that’s creepy. And it’s not honest with readers. What the consultant said is what the consultant said. (And the consultant, to his credit, didn’t pull the old ‘I was misquoted’ routine).”

Read more here.