Nitpicker's Diary

   The CBS program "60 Minutes" apologized for a "mistake" in using part of an interview in which the subject claimed he was at the American Embassy during the attack in Benghazi. Reason: "We were misled," said reporter Lara Logan, since what the man said to CBS differed from what he told the FBI.
   Note that CBS did not use the word "retraction" but used "mistake" and "misled." Question: What if the report was true, and that the interview subject "misled" the FBI?
   In all the years "60 Minutes" has been on the air, there have been (to our memory) only two other instances where a report was put in doubt. Once over a Mike Wallace report, where corporate yielded to government pressure and held a report, and another time over a Dan Rather report where the comments of a subject were not fully corroborated. In both cases, however, the reports were true.
   So why did CBS bend to political pressure?

   The latest trend in journalism is the appointment of "content managers" who will coordinate stories with advertising department goals.
   Bad idea. When editors lose their independent judgement over what story to run and how to handle it, the profession and the people suffer.
   Or, as I used to say to those who emphasized how much they spend on advertising in the newspaper where I worked, "If you can influence coverage, so can your competitor. Do you really want that?"

   Key to Obamacare --  "You tell us how much you can afford, and we give you a range of options to fit your budget." Sound familiar? It's from an insurance company's TV ad. The new health care law requires everyone to have health insurance. If you don't already have it, you must buy it from an insurance company. And, of course, there are government subsidies for those who can't afford the private company rates. Bottom line: Obamacare is not itself health care insurance, but a program that says you must buy it. No wonder there has been no opposition from corporate America. Except to prevent a single-payer, government program such as Medicare for everyone.

   Seen in a surgeon's waiting room: "Displacement requires surgical intervention to restore anatomic relationships." In doctor-speak, that translates to "When it's broken, fix it.'

   A TV ad for Cadillac features theme music from the James Bond movies. True fans know that Agent 007 drove an Aston Martin.

   Grammar gremlins --  It's common in English that nouns can become verbs and vice versa. But a two-word verb form becomes a single word when used as a noun. The latest and most noticeable infringement of this rule is "shutdown." As a noun, it's one word, but the verb form remains two words: shut down.