First five of the top ten notable quotes of the year

Teaching young reporters how to identify information that needs to be fully and accurately quoted is not easy. Raw rookies tend to quote almost everything they bring back from an interview. After all, someone definitely said what they heard and took notes on (or recorded).

But just as most novelists don't rely completely on dialog, reporters need to use direct quotations strategically and in the service of advancing the story.

A well-chosen quote from an authoritative source not only creates "voice" on the page but also provides a starting point for more in-depth analysis. And sometimes a single quote can become the anchor for our memories of an event or situation or trend.

An official at the Yale Law Library released his 2022 list of such quotes, a supplement to the New Yale Book of Quotations, and I am sharing the first five today (the final five on Friday), with personal commentary.

1. “I need ammunition, not a ride.” — Zelenskyy, response to U.S. offer to transport him to safety, Feb. 26. 

Zelenskyy was named Time magazine Person of the Year last night, and this quote helps us remember why the Ukraine president has become a near-universal symbol of standing up to raw power. Is it just coincidence that the U.S. is beset with legal and political cases that boil down to whether the powerful can create their own rules?

2. “Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” — Trump, post on Truth Social network, Dec. 3.

This is just the most recent egregious Trump pronouncement, but it's a doozy, implying that the Orange One doesn't care even a tiny bit about democracy or citizenship. He is an addled narcissist. (Was that too strong?)

The quote is from a social media post, so it comes complete with odd capitalization that is characteristic of the past president. Reporters normally correct grammar and confusing syntax when sharing quotes in the interest of clarity for readers (not to protect the speaker). Quoting from written documents demands more strict quoting rules.

3. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.” — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, writing in the court’s opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade and took away women’s constitutional protections for abortion, June 24.

Most people suspected that our lopsidedly radical conservative court would cause problems for the country, but this was the key decision that brought vague fears into focus. Alito has since come under scrutiny for giving select supporters advance notice of court decisions and he seems increasingly belligerent and willing to throw our culture into disarray.

As a direct quote, it stands as a claim, and once stated the reporter can dig into the support offered for that claim (as well as opposing views). But we need somewhere to begin.

4. “The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed.” — U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, writing in the dissenting opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, June 24.

Sometimes a quote can capture the essence of the moment perfectly, and few on either side of the abortion issue could really argue against this dissenting view. It's not spicy but it's crystal clear, and that makes for a great direct quote.

5. “Will Smith just smacked the s--- out of me.” — Comedian Chris Rock at the Academy Awards ceremony, March 27.

Here we have a quote that requires some "sanitizing," as "shit" is likely to offend enough readers of the mainstream press (and of the high school press, for sure) that the use of the common vulgarity can become the story over the sense of the overall quotation. 

The vulgarity was bleeped during the televised Oscar Awards, of course, for that reason. It's worth a discussion in class to talk about where we draw the line on vulgarity, and whether we are being condescending to bleep words that most readers are quite aware of.

What we don't want reporters and editors to do is completely change the offending word to something like "crap." That amounts to changing the impact and intent of the quote. 

We can always choose to paraphrase instead of quote, and that allows more latitude in diction.

More tomorrow.