I wonder, how do you feel, when you were misquoted? How would you feel when your work is reproduced without even so much of a note to ask for your permission?

Yet recently, 2 of my friends suffered this. One of them got quoted twice – the first time just a section of his post, and the second time, another post in its entirety. On both occasions, there was no notification that he was being quoted. He wouldn’t have known if not for comments left behind by readers. (Not linking to this friend as he has declined to be identified.)

You might be thinking that this is yet another case of bloggers taking it for granted and just reproducing another bloggers’ post. But it wasn’t. It was done by papers of our local press! When did they get the idea of getting articles of blogs to fill up the space on the papers?

This is how I felt about it: You have your flower pots along the corridor outside your HDB flat, and one day, a flower bloomed and then someone just snip it away without even so much of saying “Thank you!” or asking whether you would mind at all. However you want to justify it – i.e. it’s in a public area and all that jazz – the minimum amount of courtesy is still expected! (Furthermore, even helpers in a dessert shop asked permission before they took photos of the tiger on my t-shirt, when they can just do it and I won’t know any better!)

And if you think that’s the lowest our local papers can sink, you haven’t seen nothing yet.

A friend who was interviewed, got misquoted when the article went to print. And that, in spite of the tape recording being made during the interview! (Her account here.)

It makes one wonder, just how qualified are our so-called journalists? Just who the hell train their editors and this breed of journalists anyway? In fact, it even begs the question, are they even qualified at all? And even if their journalism qualifications is not in question, one wonders whether their own comprehension and listening skills is that bad too! Seriously, they need to go back to elementary school!

It is no surprise I have stopped reading our local papers other than the RECRUIT section. And it is no wonder why I have yet to regret the day I ended my ST Online subscription.

Clarification: This isn’t a post directed at the Straits Times though it was the one which misquoted. It was another paper which quoted the other friend’s blog post, however.