tsujigiri

The editorial comments of Chris and James, covering the news, science, religion, politics and culture.

"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." -Douglas Adams

Monday, December 02, 2002

I've been listening to the evolution of CNN headlines today. This morning they mentioned a Brittish government report on Iraqi human rights abuses, and noted that "Amnesty International has questioned the motive of the report, pointing out that the Brittish government ignored Amnesty International's reports of abuses before the Gulf War." By late afternoon, the headline had shifted to "Amnesty International has denounced the report." Were there too many clauses in the original sentence? Was the fact just too complicated to satisfy viewers? Maybe they need something short and clear-cut. "Denouncement" is much more definite and final than "questions the motives of." While "denouncement of the report" is certainly absurd after some reflection, the sentence requires little grammatical or conceptual processing on the part of the listener. I guess that's what CNN is shooting for.

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