Monday, January 15, 2018

Northern Utah daily runs reported Trump quotation, with a note directing reader complaints to the president

President Trump's vulgar comment about African countries and Haiti forced news organizations to decide whether they would report the verbatim quotation reported by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and if so, how they would handle it. Perhaps the most interesting approach was taken by The Herald Journal of Logan, Utah, which ran the Associated Press story with a headline that used the verbatim quotation and followed it with an editor's note:

"Since President Donald Trump's statement about immigrants from certain areas of the world is taking over the story on the immigration deal being negotiated in Washington, we will be using the president's language verbatim in print and online. Feel free to direct your complaints about the president's choice of language via postal service to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, online at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ or via Twitter @realDonaldTrump."

Readers' limited comments on the story were favorable. One called it "priceless."

The Herald Journal is published by Seattle-based Pioneer News Group, which also has papers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Some of its larger papers, such as the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle in Montana, ran the story with the headline but without an editor's note.

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