Quoting Mistakes?

Today Rio won the spot for the 2016 Olympics. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post had an article on the front page describing what happened. However, while I was reading both articles something strange caught my eye.


Both articles had a quote from Bob Ctvrtlik, the USOC vice president, talking about why Chicago was not chosen. The Washington Post had the quote say: "The U.S. Olympic movement hasn't engaged with the IOC in a long time," Ctvrtlik said. "I don't think it's anti-American, but we still don't have the horsepower to do the politicizing." The times on the other hand said: " “The United States, within the Olympic movement, hasn’t engaged as well as we could have for a long time,” said Robert Ctvrtlik, the U.S.O.C. vice president for international relations. “There’s a lot of politics going on. This isn’t just on the merits. I don’t think it’s anti-American. Maybe we still don’t have the horsepower to do some of the politicking within the movement.” Although these two quotes may seem very similar the slight word change at the end of the quote has me worried. Does the US not have the horsepower to take having the Olympics in Chicago and turn it into a political issue or do we not have the horsepower to do some of the politicking that is part of the process to get Chicago the bid? Of course the difference is minute, but it is still there.

Which of these two newspapers has misquoted Ctvrtlik? If they have this quote incorrect how many other quotes do they get wrong? Can we trust these papers to give us the news? Yes, it may seem as though I'm overreacting but it is up to the people to continuously question what the media gives us in order to keep the media in line.