The Frankenbite scandal leads to the question: Who do you have to blow to get the Los Angeles Times to admit it made a mistake?

The LA Times embarrassed itself before the entertainment and broadcast journalism communities his week when it gave the wrong definition of the TV term frankenbite. But will they admit they're wrong?

Ha!

Not that we expected them to. In the past, we've found it near impossible to get a major metropolitan newspaper to admit they've made a mistake. Forget the New York Times. Their corrections lady talked a circle around our pointing out that they'd claimed producrs from A Current Affair were at a Broadway premiere-- six months after the show had been canceled. And they ignored us when we took them to task for deliberately misquoting Robert Chambers in his infamous "doll" video. Never mind the Chicago Tribune. When we tried to get them to admit their reporter plagiarized Our Man Elli in Israel, their ombudsman's head almost exploded in umbrage!

Now we have the LA Times. The smug hometown paper for the entertainment industry, which unfortunately covers much of the industry like a wide-eyed cub reporter from Sandusky, is twisting and spinning and standing by their reporter Scott Collins, who built his piece around the mistaken assumption that a Frankenbite is an "out of context" line used as voiceover in a reality show.

We and everyone who's worked in a news, documentary or reality show edit room knows a Frankenbite is a line that's edited together from unrelated words and phrases-- and usually not to mislead.

Collins ignored our email. So we went to the corrections department. We emailed them out original post and heard back from the "assistant readers representative" Kent Zelas. A nice young man. And quite the tapdancer.

Dig this email exchange. Now its time for our head to explode!

From: Readers Rep Readers.Rep@latimes.com
Subject: correction

Thanks for writing so that I can pass your thoughts on this to others.

I'm certainly no expert on this word, and have no idea about whether there is a generally agreed upon definition of it yet, but just going by the definition you cite from Kevin Arnovitz at Slate-- please see his complete definition below--I'd be interested in getting a clearer picture as to how you are seeing "extracting the salient elements of a lengthy, nuanced interview or exchange into a seemingly blunt, revealing confession or argument" and "manipulating viewer perception of a contestant" as different from using "out-of-context quotes that illustrate points the speakers never intended to make."

Here's the definition by Arnovitz that I'm referring to:

According to-- (Slate)-- "Frankenbite (n): An edited reality show snippet, most often found in contestant testimonials, that splices together several disparate strands of an interview, or even multiple interviews, into a single clip. A frankenbite allows editors to manufacture 'story' (see definition below) efficiently and dramatically by extracting the salient elements of a lengthy, nuanced interview or exchange into a seemingly blunt, revealing confession or argument. While the frankenbite's origins certainly don't reside in reality TV, this is a reality show editor's most potent tool for manipulating viewer perception of a contestant. Usage: 'Man, they amped up that catfight with that vicious frankenbite of Margo.'"

I appreciate your taking a moment to write The Times about this.

Kent Zelas
Asst. Readers' Rep.

Sigh.

To: Readers.Rep@latimes.com
Subject: RE: correction

Hi Kent

Thanks for your swift response.

But it's clear, Scott got the definition wrong. Using an out-of-context quote in a voiceover situation to make a person appear to be speaking about an issue when he is not is the exact OPPOSITE purpose of a Frankenbite.

As Arnovitz (our new authority, I suppose) explains,it "allows editors to manufacture "story" (see definition below) efficiently and dramatically by extracting the salient elements of a lengthy, nuanced interview or exchange into a seemingly blunt, revealing confession or argument.

A Frankenbite pieces together words from any part of an interview in order that a person can say what he means to say concisely.

Collins wrote: "Editors routinely use 'frankenbites,' out-of-context quotes that illustrate points the speakers never intended to make."

Where is the gray area? That is clearly wrong. It's not a frankenbite and not the purpose for creating one.

We WGA members would like a correction.

Thanks

Now, hold on to your heads.

From: Readers Rep Readers.Rep@latimes.com
Subject: RE: correction

Thanks for your further thoughts. Your note quotes Arnovitz as writing "Frankenbite pieces together words from any part of an interview in order that a person can say what he means to say concisely" here:

As Arnovitz (our new authority, I suppose) explains, it "allows editors to manufacture "story" (see definition below) efficiently and dramatically by extracting the salient elements of a lengthy, nuanced interview or exchange into a seemingly blunt, revealing confession or argument.

Frankenbite pieces together words from any part of an interview in order that a person can say what he means to say concisely."

I'm just not seeing that in the Slate article.

Or is that last line actually your take on it?

It occurs to me that there might be a cultural gulf here, though.

In journalism, "manufacturing 'story'" by editing "nuanced" into "blunt, revealing" is the kind of thing that's been called quoting someone "out of context."

Kent Zelas

From: Readers Rep Readers.Rep@latimes.com
Subject: RE: correction

Kent,

I don't understand what you're missing here.

A Frankenbite is a quote assembled from individual words and phrases from a complete interview to construct a quote that the interview subject did not articulate concisely. It is not an out of context quote, and Scott's mistake made him a laughingstock on the blogosphere and joke among broadcast professionals. How can he cover the strike, they ask, when he doesn't even understand the basic terminology.

The Slate definition is clear. But forget Slate. Call Bunim Murray or Nash Entertainment or NBC News, ask for an editor and ask him or her what a Frankenbite is.

You guys got it wrong.

Thanks again.

Any ideas?