Press bias

TIGER OR PUSSYCAT?-- Should the press have been more diligent in warning of the economic meltdown of the last decade? Our correspondent across the pond wondered whether the media failed in its duty to warn of coming problems. He notes that there were sufficient warning signs of the looming disaster for the press to pick up and report.

He writes: "I remember there were a few reports of that nature, but the politicians and bankers and property developers dismissed these reports as meaningless.
"Someone even coined the term 'Celtic Tiger' to describe the Irish economy. For some reason those members of the press who read the signs correctly were not broadly published or believed.
"I know the press can be like a dog with a bone and work away on
something until all is revealed; one of the most famous cases is Watergate.
"Should the press simply be an observer, or should it also take on the role of watchdog?"

Here's my response:

To me, the press is both observer and watchdog. Your analogy of a dog after a bone is apt; I've used it myself, with the scenario being that a dog sniffs a bone somewhere and keeps digging until he finds it.
The problem with economic and business news is that many reporters think it's too hard, so they don't do it. They think the "real news" is on Page One, and those are the stories worth pursuing. I encountered that attitude more than once at the paper where I worked, with some very good reporters claiming that business news was "too hard." My response was that quite often, stories would appear on the biz page weeks and months before these stories would be "discovered" by the Page One crew. The same attitude was held by senior editors. Soon after I started on the biz desk, a story about real estate (my beat at the time) cropped up, and the managing editor wanted to give it to one of the general assignment reporters because it was a Page One story. Fortunately, the editor in chief, overruled the managing editor, saying that the story should be given to the reporter who knows the field best.
Another claim was that the style of writing for Page One stories was somehow "different" from business and economic stories, and required a different skill set. This, of course, is nonsense. Good writing is good writing.

Opinion

PRIORITIES -- Rick Santorum said today that he believes in "free-market health care, not government-run health care." The view from here is that health care is too important to be left to the free market. There are many other things that are also too important to be left to the free market, among them roads and bridges; sanitation; law enforcement, policing and court systems; fire protection; environmental protection, and military defense. Many hospitals began as nonprofit facilities run by local volunteer or religious groups. However, many have been taken over by corporate-owned health systems, which are profit-oriented. Is the level of care any better? That's an open question.

REMAINDER -- The staff reviewer for an NBC morning talk show noted that the audience for the new film, The Hunger Games, was 50 percent women and 40 percent men. We wondered who were in the remaining 10 percent. Trolls, perhaps?

Trivial arts

BACK TO BASICS -- A thorough education used to be considered a solid knowledge of the Seven Liberal Arts: Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric (known as the Trivium), as well as Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astronomy (known as the quadrivium).


The first three yielded the term now called "trivial." But unlike its original meaning connoting "important, basic," the current meaning of "trivial" conveys a sense of little or no importance, and not worth spending time on. Consequently, the teaching of Grammar is ignored (by students, partly because their instructors don't understand it, either); Logic is offered largely to Philosophy majors in college or as an elective; and Rhetoric, the art of persuasion through well-constructed sentences, is dismissed as political or marketing gimmickry -- an attempt to get people to do something they don't want to do.


Of the remaining four, Arithmetic has been surrendered to the use of electronic calculators. Music is one of the first programs to fall victim to budget cuts, Geometry is victimized by rote and stultifying boredom, and Astronomy is limited to Boy Scout troops and university graduate specialists.


Rhetoric is not a dirty word. It is the ability to use Grammar (the relationships of words to each other), Syntax (the use of well-constructed sentences), and Logic (the arrangement of concepts and ideas) to prove or disprove something.


Success in writing depends on the appropriate use of "trivial" strategies.

Blissful

PAY ATTENTION -- The St. Patrick's Day Parade in Philadelphia stepped off with the TV announcer praising the bagpipe band as it played "a great Irish ditty." It was the Marine Corps Hymn, "From the Halls of Montezuma."


OUPS -- The Oxford University Press needs a few good copy editors. In its book, American Immigration, A Very Short Introduction, the text credited population growth in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries to better nutrition and better sanitation, which "brought down morality rates." Yup, that'll do it.


SPELLCHECK REDUX -- The OUP let through a reference to emigrants needing a visa from a "counselor" office. It's "consular." And the New York Times let an r escape though inattention to meanings.

Guest Watt?

PR PRATFALL -- The memo from the agency offered the exec's service as a "guess speaker." Presumably, there would be no advance notice of what the exec would have to say.


DOUBLING DOWN -- The same memo noted that the exec would be "travelling," making him available as a "guess speaker." Single L, please. The guideline is this: When the stress is on the last syllable, double the consonant before adding -ed or -ing. Examples: refer, referred; travel, traveling. Thanks to the Sichelman.


FROM THE K MAN ISLAND -- "We're having a debate about the use of a versus an when followed by a vowel or consonant." Why should this even be a question? Use an before a vowel sound, and a  before a consonant. Examples: An apple, a pear. And when the noun begins with an h, the usage will vary according to whether the h is silent. Examples: A hospital, a history, or an hour, an honorable deed. Note that the guideline is on vowel sound, not whether the letter is designated a consonant. Remember Diana Hacker's Writer's Reference manuals, the guidebooks you had to buy for Freshman Comp but never read? Get one, or Will Strunk's little book.


ACTIVE VS PASSIVE -- Avoid the phrase "is comprised of" for two reasons. One, it's the passive voice, which is not as powerful in writing as the active; and two, it's poor usage. "Comprise" is similar to "include," so you are in effect saying the group "is included of" several items.

Beware of Absolutes

TRUE, BUT -- A new PBS documentary on Bill Clinton referred to him as "the first Democratic President to win re-election to a second term since Franklin Roosevelt." Like many political speakers, this Clinton backer found something that is, indeed, true as far as it goes. The problem is that it doesn't go very far. At first blush it sounds impressive, until one asks, how many other Democratic Presidents have sought re-election since Franklin Roosevelt. Answer: One, Jimmy Carter, who lost to Ronald Reagan. Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson chose not to run for a second term, and John Kennedy was assassinated.

OTHER FAVORITES -- "The only Democrat holding statewide elective office." In New Jersey at the time, there were only three statewide elective offices: Governor and two U.S. Senators. The state has since added a fourth, lieutenant governor. And there were the raceway ads that proclaimed "the fastest quarter-mile, high-banked, macadam speedway in the East." It may well have been the only one.

WILD GUESS -- A Philadelphia TV outlet led its news program with this: "A man was found bound, gagged and beaten, and police say it could be connected to a murder." If the man was found dead, there is no question that it was murder. If still alive, specify that.

GRAMMAR MANNERS -- The role of a linguist is to describe the forms and patterns of the language under study, and how it fits with other languages in the same group, e.g.  Germanic, Slavic, Latin-based or some other set of related languages. The role of a grammarian is to study and describe the forms and patterns of how a particular language is used. In this way, the study of grammar is a subset within the larger field of linguistics. However, some who call themselves grammarians not only list the forms and patterns typically used by speakers and writers, but to insist that these are the rules that everyone must follow.
While it is true that speaking and writing a particular dialect may have economic advantages, there is no legal requirement that one do so. At least, not in America. Not yet.
Even so, speaking the language of the country does help in finding a job, and using the more prestigious dialect can lead to social and job advancement.
For proof, look around and take note of the speech of those in charge. They tend to speak the more socially accepted dialect. Except when they're on the campaign trail back home. Lyndon Johnson was a master at it.
Or, watch the movie "My Fair Lady," based on G.B. Shaw's play, "Pygmalion." Shaw's lead character, Professor Henry Higgins, was based on a real-life linguist name Henry Sweet, a pioneer in the study of phonetics, who reportedly was every bit as crotchety as the character so well portrayed by Rex Harrison.

Impeach This

BEWARE OF ABSOLUTES -- TV Weekly referred to Bill Clinton as "the first President to be impeached since Andrew Johnson in 1868." True, but it implies that there were others who were impeached before Johnson. Not true. Only two Presidents have ever been impeached -- Clinton and Andrew Johnson -- but neither was convicted. (Richard Nixon was not impeached: He resigned before the full House could vote on articles of impeachment approved by a House committee.)
An impeachment is like an indictment; it's a list of charges, nothing more. The House of Representatives is like a grand jury; it hears the evidence and approves the impeachment, which then goes to the Senate for trial. The Constitution is remarkably easy to read.
Note to candidates: Try it sometime.