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RT loves partial quotes, and other editorial choices that drive us nuts
By Theresa Avila
A quick look at the homepage for rt.com gives some insight into the company’s editorial choices – not just the stories they choose, but their style choices. Like their passion for partial quotes.
Here’s the latest headlines on RT’s homepage as of May 4, 2015.
The very best quotes stand alone, even when they are just a fragment of a sentence. But the problem with partial quotes is that they can be taken out of context. RT seems to have a habit of using partial quotes that are never quoted in their entirety in the article, which makes it hard to determine their legitimacy.
Or, at the very least, they end up sounding like someone’s telling us a story with lots of “air” quotes. It’s about as appealing as watching this guy:
Once you read rt.com’s top news stories as much as we do here at RT Watch, it becomes obvious exactly how much RT loves a partial quote to kick off a story. Bonus points if the partial quote hints at great misfortune or wrongdoing.