Well, yyz, if you would give all the facts of the situation rather then letting them dribble out over the course of the thread, it might be easier to comment on your situation.

I am reading your posts to say that you DID exchange e-mails with Jane before the story was published. Of course, I am not privvy to those conversations, but in that sense, I would say that yes, you WERE talking to a reporter. This all makes your first post in this thread seem somewhat disingenuous.

The burden is NOT on the reporter to get permission to print something one says or writes. To the contrary, the burden is on the speaker/writer to make it clear that something is "off the record." Perhaps knowing this you can avoid getting into this situation again.

As for people quoting directly from FT, why would one write something on a 'public' forum that they would be embarassed to have attributed to themselves. What exactly IS the difference between something being published here or in the WSJ? The thoughts are out in the marketplace of ideas. If you dont care to be associated with the thoughts, dont bring them to the marketplace, IMHO...

[This message has been edited by kokonutz (edited 08-10-2001).]