Houston Newspaper Apologizes After Inadvertently Ridiculing Latino Athlete

HOUSTON, TX -- The Houston Chronicle newspaper has apologized for quoting a Latino athlete speaking in broken English, an incident that has given rise to critiques over the diversity among the newspaper's reporting staff and loose adherence to established journalistic guidelines.

The Friday apology stems from a May 4 sports column headlined "Carlos Gomez knows he's a disappointment to Astros fans." In it, Brian T. Smith wrote about the athletic performance of Houston Astros baseball player Gómez, a native of the Dominican Republic.

" 'For the last year and this year, I not really do much for this team," the baseball player was quoted as saying. "The fans be angry. They be disappointed,' " the column quotes Gómez as telling the columnist.

Swift criticism followed the publication of the column, including complaints from fans of the athlete and other journalism outlets. In quoting verbatim, the columnist made no allowances for the language barrier involved or adhered to established journalistic guidelines allowing for modifications in quoting.

The latter practices -- including time-honored guidelines followed by the Associated Press, whose usage style is followed by most print media outlets -- are designed to prevent the appearance of ridiculing a subject or making him seem uneducated.

"We sincerely apologize for any offense that was taken," a Chronicle editor, Nancy Barnes, told Journali-isms. She categorized the newspaper's adherence to AP style as "less than adequate," in the column.

The incident has yielded a debate in journalism circles about the proper protocol in quoting people struggling with language barriers. It's also shone a light on the lack of diversity in the nation's shrinking newspaper industry, a dynamic that may have prevented the likely inadvertent offense from occurring in the first place had a minority editor seen the column before it was published.

"Quoting Gomez in this way is incredibly offensive," wrote Britni de la Cretaz on alldigitocracy.com. "It makes him sound unintelligent when, in reality, he’s experiencing a language barrier. But this is what happens when you have a white journalist who is not attuned to the cultural issues affecting the person he is reporting on."

Notwithstanding this weekend's apology, this isn't the first time the Chronicle has been accused of being insensitive in coverage of a member of a minority. Two years ago, columnist Bill King wrote a column suggesting the Houston Police Department's operations should be reviewed by an outside consulting firm before more money is allotted to its operations by the city council.

The questionable nature of the column centered on the fact the department is headed by Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland, yet the columnist chose a business-related metaphor involving watermelon trucks to make his point about budgets.

"The basis of his allegation was that I had used as a lead-in to the story an account I first heard in business school 40 years ago about a vendor buying watermelons for more than he was selling them," columnist Bill King wrote in a follow-up column in which he apologized, titled Lessons Learned: When Words Get in the Way. "As the tale goes, the vendor concluded that to make more money, he would need a bigger truck."

In its report about the Gómez column, Journal-isms, checked the standard practice at the New York Times and Washington Post on dealing with interviews with people not totally English-fluent.

Philip B. Corbett, associate editor for standards at the New York Times, told the site there are allowances made for avoiding inadvertent ridicule of such interview subjects: "When someone's grammar is nonstandard — for whatever reason — we often paraphrase, or use partial quotations. That way we can avoid seeming to ridicule or treat someone unfairly, while still preserving the integrity of any direct quotations."

While the Washington Post style book labels such issues as presenting difficult choices, their usage guidelines also call for extra attention in deviation from standard rules: "When quoting people for whom English is not their first language, special care should be taken. If such quotations make the speaker look stupid or foolish, we should consider paraphrasing them (outside of quotation marks of course). When appropriate, a story should note that a source was struggling with English. . . ."