The matter of Houston Chronicle baseball scribe Brian T. Smith’s attempts to portray OF Carlos Gomez as especially inarticulate were noted in this space last week, and on Friday, Smith’s boss, Chronicle editor Nancy Barnes issued a mea culpa to Journal-ism’s Richard Prince :
“With regards to quoting Carlos Gomez: We sincerely apologize for any offense that was taken. Our writers are encouraged to adhere to AP style rules, which are quoted below. I reviewed the rules myself after this arose and found the guidelines on quotes to be less than adequate for a community like ours, full of immigrants from all over the world, and for whom English is often a second language. I’ve asked some top editors to review this policy, research best practices, and recommend guidance for all of our writers in the future. We always want to be respectful of those we are interviewing.”