The Newsweek Daily Beast Company

love the beast :)

Imagine being quoted, by name, in an article as saying something you did not say?! Now imagine if the view imputed to you, was extremely offensive. What would you do? Email the editor? Call the publication? Sue?
This recently happened to me. Feeling incredibly frustrated and powerless, immediately after reading the article by Gail Sheehy, in The Daily Beast, I reached out to the editors by email (this is how they tell you to contact them on the website). I suspect it was an honest mistake, as the quoted words were spoken, just not by me. The moronic comment at issue, was made by the person standing NEXT TO ME, as it was a small group being interviewed after a film.
Unfortunately for me, and disgracefully for The Daily Beast, it has now been one week and the article has not been corrected, nor have they had the decency to return my email or telephone call.
Not being a public figure or someone who is regularly interviewed, I can’t begin to express how infuriating it is to have words put in your mouth, in print, especially when they have you saying something you find insulting/​offensive/​stupid. Not a good feeling or experience. From their lack of response, I guess «small matters» such as this are not a priority for them.
As a regular reader of The Daily Beast, I’m disappointed and insulted. The only way that this «mistake» could have been cured is if they would have responded to my email or phone call in a timely manner and made the simple correction. Sure, no publication is perfect and people make mistakes, sloppy journalism is nothing new… but at least have the professionalism and courtesy to fix a mistake when you make one. Who knows, maybe they will eventually get back to me and correct the article, but the worst part about something like this is, the damage is already done.