pipe

v. to embellish, fabricate, or invent (information for a newspaper article). Subjects: English, Media, Slang

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Citations: 1991 Robert Lipsyte Columbia Journalism Review (New York City) (Nov. 1) “Damon Runyon” p. vol. 30, no. 4, p. 83: Jiggs Bluster may have piped quotes and gilded scum in his time, but in the long run Jimmy Breslin offered this city a gift: he made it clear that the true experts on life are not officials and academics, but those who live it every day. 1998 Claudia Kalb, Richard Turner Newsweek (Aug. 17) “What Was He Thinking? Another Boston columnist runs into trouble” p. 57: He writes in the style of the metro column, a genre that has included some of the best newspaper writing ever, but also its share of “piping,” making stuff up in the tradition of Damon Runyon, who wrote fiction. (One columnist calls such fabrications “Danny Boys,” as in “Danny Boy, the pipes are calling.”) 2004 Howard Raines The Atlantic (May) “My Times”: Jim Roberts’s research also established the likelihood of inaccuracies, plagiarism, piped quotes, and faked datelines in many other Blair stories. 2004 David Kipen San Francisco Chronicle (May 11) “In the end, Hollywood story works”: It anticipated the whole Jayson Blair imbroglio by a good 15 years with a thriller about a reporter who gets burned making up—or “piping,” in David Freeman’s parlance—a New York magazine article about a pimp.

Posted 11 May 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend