An Open Letter to the Associated Press
Dear AP,On 17 October, you released an article about the implications of incorrect information concerning Valerie Plame. (This misinformation was found in NYTimes reporter Judith Miller's newly released notes.) The point of the article was that this new info might lead investigators to the original source of the leak.
The article closes with the following single-sentence paragraph:
My complaint is neither one of politics nor of poor reporting. It is a complaint against diction.The revelation came as President Bush wighed in yesterday by declining to say what he would do if one of his aides were indicted in the investigation.
To "weigh in" most literally means to "add weight" to an argument or statement. It is to make such a statement richer, more laden with evidence, support, or believability. Precisely what President Bush did not do in this situation was "weigh in." Rather, he avoided weighing in, declining to make a statement that might have indicated his support either for or against the findings of the investigation. (One presumes that a determination to sack any indicted aide would show that he was taking the charges seriously and therefore approved of the investigation, while a decision not to do so would show that he doesn't give a rat's ass about who is compromising American intelligence agents' lives and livelihoods.)
AP, you should be ashamed. I freely admit that this is a mere quibble with a news source that is largely reliable and on-the-ball. Yet word choice is important; we dilute this rich and lovely language of ours when we use our words carelessly. Losing shades of meaning also loses us shades of thought.
posted by Skay @ 10:43 AM
3 Comments:
That's one of those phrases that's unfortunately used incorrectly more often than not, even in the mainstream press. Other personal pet peeves on the list: the word "hopefully," and the phrase "begging the question."
It wasn't sarcasm? (I saw it as at the least an effort to draw attention to the lack of weight.)
-Iz
If it's sarcasm, that's pretty bad, too. Should any reporter be openly sarcastic when (ostensibly) not editorializing?
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