Clark Hoyt: “In fact, there is a protocol, and ‘Questions For’ isn’t living up to it. The Times’s Manual of Style and Usage says that readers have a right to assume that every word in quotation marks is what was actually said. ‘Questions For’ does not use quotations marks but is presented as a transcript. The manual also says ellipses should be used to signal omissions in transcripts, and that ‘The Times does not ‘clean up’ quotations….maybe ‘Questions For’ needs to be rethought.”

I should say so. Incidentally, Hoyt’s piece is in response to Matt Elzweig’s piece, which appeared a few weeks ago.