Judge Thomas accuses media of having its own script
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently granted a rare media interview to BusinessWeek senior writer Diane Brady. The interview focusses on his years at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts and issues of affirmative action, but it was his opening comment about the media which has garnered the most attention, especially among bloggers:
One of the reasons I don’t do media interviews is, in the past, the media often has its own script. One reason these stories are never told is that they are contrary to the script that people play by. The media, unfortunately, have been universally untrustworthy because they have their own notions of what I should think or I should do.
I think people rushed to reprint this quote because it supports the perception of many people that what one says in an interview has a good chance of being misquoted or quoted out of context, etc.
And, in case you’re wondering why Judge Thomas granted an interview to one of the “universally untrustworthy” media, his opening line of the interview was “Father Brooks [head of Holy Cross] asked me to do it” (Business Week was doing a story on Holy Cross).
Posted: March 12th, 2007 under Accuracy, Journalistic Credibility, Media Interview Trends.