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And the corrections on the Washington Post came LOUD & CLEAR: The Aug. 12 obituary of Riccardo Cassin mistakenly credited quotations to the London Independent…

(read more here)

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I WROTE THIS BLOG: The Washington Post reporter called me to personally apologize for the mistake made by the London Independent that indeed misquoted me to start off with.

So, I guess, according to the Washington Post latest article in yesterday’s Obituaries section, the London Independent did all the work I thought I did when I  flew to Italy in 2008 to interview Italian rock climbing legend Riccardo Cassin: Taking the train to Lecco, driving to his home, having lunch with his family, then recording his tales of climbing adventures and then writing the piece for Climbing magazine…

Or at least this is what I gathered from the Post’s mistaken attributions of my quotes to the London Independent in yesterday’s article.

I am sure it was an honest mistake, but I am still not going to let the reporter, Taylor Shapiro, get away with this, especially since he contacted me directly via email on Monday to ask me for some pictures to include in his piece and, not only did I gave them to him, but also passed along few contacts of Cassin’s friends back in Italy.

This is the Washington Post, a highly respected paper that was nominated and received several Pulitzer Prizes in the past years. And I am a poor freelance writer who likes rock climbing, writing and occasionally getting published. All I would like now is to be fairly credited for the hard work I did, nothing more.

Please click on the links of the two articles below and tell me if you do not see the similarities in between the quotes.

Mine: http://www.climbing.com/community/perspective/riccardo_cassin-the_full_interview/index.html

Wapo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081103071_2.html

London Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/riccardo-cassin-a-climber-who-leads-them-all-1056657.html