Out in the meeting-room, with the sight of the leaves and a red brick wall outside the high windows, there is little to make one know that the old yellow leaves were written so very long ago, after all. Perhaps in those old days there were no white and purple lilacs in the front of the room to nod and drowse and sweeten through the long hours. Perhaps then there was not so much true kindliness as has come with the years of Friendliness. To-day, when one of the oldest women rises from her place to speak, an old man says gently, “Elizabeth, thee need not rise to speak unless thee prefer.” He might not have done that in the old days, but surely her answer would have been the same, “Thank thee, Charles, but I prefer to stand when I speak,” with just a hint of reproof in her tone.
=Type of story.= Speeches, lectures, addresses, and sermons may be considered in the same class with interviews and reports, because all are alike in being some form of utterance. Hence news stories of them consist largely of reproductions of the words and ideas of some person. A speech and a report differ only in the fact that one is spoken and the other is written. An interview, likewise, may be regarded as an informal address delivered to an audience of one. When an interview is given in question and answer form, it resembles cross-examination in a court story more than it does a speech.
As reproductions of utterances, news stories of speeches and reports must be largely informative. Except for an occasional opportunity to describe the speaker or the audience, they offer practically no field for human interest development. In interviews, on the other hand, it is possible to bring out the human interest element in portraying the character and personality of the person interviewed (cf. “Interview,” p. 135). Otherwise interviews, like speeches and reports, are largely informative (cf. “Interview with Official,” p. 133).
=Purpose.= To reproduce as accurately as possible the ideas expressed by a speaker, by a person interviewed, or by the author of a report is obviously the only object in writing a news story dealing with such material. Four common faults that endanger the accuracy of news stories of this type are carelessness in taking down what is said, the playing up of statements that taken from their context are misleading, unintentional distortion due to giving disproportionate space or emphasis to some points, and misrepresentation because of political partisanship or other bias. All quotation, direct or indirect, should be accurate not only in substance and form but also in spirit. A statement taken verbatim from a speech, interview, or report, may be played up in the lead in such a way that it does not give the actual thought or purpose of the original. By confining his news story to only one or two phases of the subject discussed, a writer often gives an erroneous impression of the whole speech. Distortion and suppression of speeches, interviews, or reports because of political or other bias is indefensible.