Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Too Technical for Me

God, I hate TV news readers and their sloppy approach to language. On MSNBC just now, "Why Moussaoui might escape justice on a technicality." It is NOT a technicality when someone working with the prosecution violates a federal judge's order and tells witnesses how to testify, how to overcome testimony by others and how to match what others have testified. In other words, coaching them.

The "technicality" rap isn't new. Years ago, I heard a local TV reporter in Connecticut say this: "The defendant was released on a technicality--a lack of evidence." I swear to God that's what she said. That was the same station, referring to the rebuilding of the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum after its roof collapsed, as "Like a Sphinx, rising from the ashes." Yikes.

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