Not quite what we said

IN 1961 A.J.P. Taylor suffered a caustic book review at the hands of Hugh Trevor-Roper, another British historian. The book put Taylor’s standing as a serious academic in peril, said his reviewer. Taylor responded with an article: “How to quote: exercises for beginners”. In it he juxtaposed quotations from his book alongside passages from the review. They were somewhat at odds. Trevor-Roper’s methods of quotation might harm his reputation for seriousness, concluded Taylor, “if he had one”.

Half a century later, the seriousness of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been questioned in a Taylor-style takedown by SaveTheInternet.in. The group, which lobbies for net neutrality (the equal treatment of all internet traffic), has analysed a text box in a recent TRAI discussion paper, which the agency attributed to The Economist. Compared with the two original articles on which the box was based, in our January 31st 2015 issue, the campaigners found that arguments against strict net neutrality had been inserted while arguments for it had been removed or tweaked. For instance, “net neutrality is under threat” became: “net neutrality is difficult to sustain”. Robert Ravi of TRAI denies any deception. The text does not purport to be verbatim, he says. And the tweaks? “I don’t find there is a great difference between ‘difficult to sustain...

from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1GlYKvK