Wired Reporter Fred Vogelstein Refuses to Conduct Interviews Via Email

Jason Calacanis:

Frankly, you need to adapt. Journalists have misquoted people for so long — and quoted them out of context that many people like to have their words on record.

I don’t want someone taking half a sentence or paraphrasing me… Just too much risk.

Email is my preferred medium for conducting interviews. I’m not interested in playing “gotcha” by getting someone to say something they’ll later regret, or which can be misconstrued by taking it out of context. I think that in email, interview subjects are more relaxed and more thoughtful, because they don’t feel like they have to be on guard against saying something wrong or stupid.

Same thing with the same reporter with Dave Winer, and Winer then points to this ridiculous weblog entry on Wired.com where Dylan Tweney calls Calacanis “cowardly” for refusing to be interviewed on the phone. (And it’s Valleywag that outed the reporter in question as Fred Vogelstein.)

★ Wednesday, 25 April 2007