Rolling Stone Publisher Doesn't See What the Big Deal Is With Giving Sources Quote Approval
Brendan O'Connor · 01/10/16 10:21PMSome journalists, in the course of their professional lives, will come upon people who, before, during, or after an interview, will ask if they can read the forthcoming piece, once it is written, in order to approve its contents. Most often, they are simply concerned with making sure that they don’t sound like idiots. Understandable! Still, this is a frustrating thing to be asked, because it makes one wonder where these people have gotten this idea—that this is a thing that is done. Now, we know that Jann Wenner, founder and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine, is at least partly to blame, as, in response to criticism over allowing El Chapo final approval over Sean Penn’s 10,000-word article on him, he told the New York Times, “I don’t think it was a meaningful thing in the first place. We have let people in the past approve their quotes in interviews.”