Another message from Dr Walford

November 28, 2003

Al or Dean: please forward to the CR Society. Thanks.

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From: Roy Walford

Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 15:54:11 -0800

Francesca Skelton <fskelton@...>

Subject: Re: what you forwarded to me

> Dear Francesca,

> It is much harder to avoid being misquoted or sensationalized

> than the people on the list seem to think. The journalists

> are MUCH more skillful at sensationalizing you than you are at

> avoiding it. They have daily practice at it, and that's what sells

> the news. Three examples. (1) Sherm is being said to be somehow

> fixated on the number 143, because he alegedly said it twice. I doubt it.

> But if he said it for the NY Times three years ago, the contemporary

> writer may have just imported that quote (or misquote)

> as though it were part of the present interview. (2) One

> I fell for a couple of times is the " possibility question "

.. They will ask something like Do you think it's POSSIBLE that people will

> learn in the next 10 years to live to be 500? And if you answer,

> Well, yes, it's POSSIBLE, it will come out as " Dr. Walford says that

> within 10 years we will learn to live to be 500 " . Of course that's

> not what I said in answering this hypothetical question. (3) Then there are

> the set-agenda artists. They are usually writing a very negative article

> about something and want to get some authorities' support for their

preconceived

> views, so they will call you, conduct a good interview about, say, CR,

> and very CASUALLY ask something about, say, the vitamin industry,

> or something else. Your response is ALL they will quote in

> their article, (i.e., it's not about CR at all), so if

> you do not recognize what is going on, and let something slip casually

> out, you may be sorry. All the above is why I say that if you

> really want them to really get it right, best confine yourself

> to only talking to professional science writers.

Roy Walford

PS: One thing you can use if you want to just inform/educate the journalist

about something but not be quoted on it is to just say, " This is

OFF THE RECORD, but ..... " . They have an unwritten rule to

honor this, otherwise those in the know won't tell them stuff.

I have used this a lot and only one writer has ever broken

the rule (His name is Mark Christensen).

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