I was all cocked and primed to march into Big Daddy Wamre’s opulent office in the penthouse of the Advocate Tower and demand that he quadruple my salary or else I might just consider all of those offers I had been getting from the “Thrifty Nickel.”
What prompted this bullet-proof attitude? Well, it just so happened I had reached a new milestone – someone had quoted from one of my columns.
Better yet, someone quoted me in a “positive” sense. So now, I figured I had the “quotability” thing working for me. Would my column become a source of profound statements and culture-changing phrases? Would Mr. Bartlett be calling me himself to get exclusive rights to my quotations for his book?
I began wondering how to change even the most mundane comment into a pithy, memorable quote. Instead of “I’m going to lunch now, I’ll be back later,” I thought of “the sun had reached its peak and so had my appetite, and in time, each would be gone.”
But then, harsh reality hit. The quote was not attributed to me, but to the Lake Highlands Advocate itself.
RISD School Board candidate Jim Pasant, in fact, hadn’t even sought my permission – or the newspaper’s permission – to quote from my column, and suddenly I saw why.
Instead of quoting a few kind words from me, his intention instead, apparently, was to make it appear as if the Lake Highlands Advocate had endorsed him in the school board race.
Oops!
Anyone who knows Big Daddy Wamre knows the Advocate doesn’t endorse political candidates. Never has, and probably never will.
And anyone who consistently reads the Advocate also knows that, if asked, the Advocate would not give permission for any of its copyrighted stories (which includes this column) to become part of any candidate’s political campaign literature.
So instead of demanding a raise for my newly found quotability, I was on the brink of being relegated to writing personal ads for the Dallas Observer because my column had been misused, and the Advocate’s reputation of impartiality had been compromised.
As my readers know, my columns come with a warning at the end, which serves to distance the Advocate from any crazy or controversial comment I might make. There should be no mistaking that my opinions are my own and are not intended to be construed as belonging to the Advocate.
Quoting me and attributing it to the Advocate is like quoting an obituary, letter to the editor, or classified ad and attributing it to the Dallas Morning News. Yeah, it’s in the paper, but…
Nevertheless, my column appears in a section of the paper entitled “Viewpoints.” There has never been any pretense of objectivity in my columns. They contain my opinions, a synonym for “Viewpoints.”
Well, I don’t approve of what candidate Pasant did. And since he lost, Pasant now knows how much good it does to quote me.
Now I’ve learned that “quotability” can be a “liability.” I went to Big Daddy Wamre’s corner office, but he wasn’t too happy. And when Big Daddy ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
And you can quote me on that.
