Charles Johnson reproduces a piece by R. Emmett Tyrell about the dangers of quoting.
This is the conclusion of that piece:
Alas, I committed an egregious journalistic excess. I quoted the writers who a year before had insisted on Mr. Clinton’s near virginal condition and on the “dishonesty” of those of us arguing otherwise. “Dishonesty” was the word Michael Kinsley leveled at us. Joe Klein, now of Time, was equally critical. And after my Journal piece appeared he told me to my face I had dealt him “a low blow.” My innocent response was something to the effect, “But Joe, all I did was quote you.”
Today I realize how treacherous it is for writers to remind others of their prior timorousness or imbecility. Mr. Kinsley explained how unfair it is sometime ago when he noted liberals were having their foolish statements thrown back at them because of the advent of so many Internet search machines making it easy to retrieve a public person’s errors.
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