The Way They Write In Newspapers

[homedeeth]

i've noticed in various newspapers that when the journalist appears to be quoting somebody, they sometimes add a word in brackets during the sentence. this sounds like the quoter has missed a word out and if quoted without the word the sentence would not have made sense. Having said that i'm sure the quoter wouldn't have missed the word out due to their knowledge of speaking english properly
FOR EXAMPLE - (from todays times)
Mr Metzer described an alleged understanding that the sisters "would not shop [Ms Lawson] to her husband or the authorities"
Please explain

[jim360]

The original quote was probably something like "...would not shop her to her husband..." or, perhaps, something ruder or some pet name. In either case the quote has been changed to make the meaning hopefully clearer to the reader without altering the actual meaning. Happens loads of times as people speaking aren't always doing so with the intention that it will be an article, so they might miss something out or say something in a roundabout or familiar way that doesn't translate well.

[Khandro]

'Ms Lawson' is the subject under discussion and is outside of that quoted sentence, so her name is included in parenthesis for clarification.

[homedeeth]

thank you

[heathfield]

It's sometimes used to shorten something that's long-winded, without changing its context or meaning. For an example, '[Ms Lawson]' might replace something like, "the woman, who they knew personally and had met on several occasions within the last month."

[FredPuli43]

[Ms Lawson] means that the speaker did not say "Ms Lawson". He said "her". But the sub-editor on the paper decided that 'her' did not make clear who it was who was not to be shopped. So [Ms Lawson] was put in square brackets, to explain that she was meant