Talking of falling standards ...
Can anyone make sense of the following sentence from Ron Fournier, an AP "political writer"?
"Kerry's remarks came as The Washington Post reported that records concerning a Vietnam veteran who claims in the anti-Kerry ad that the Massachusetts senator lied about being under fire was under constant attack himself during the same skirmish."
There must be a word missing somewhere. But really, could that bloated slug of a sentence stand any more convolution?
Posted by Alan Allport at August 19, 2004 07:42 AMI can't prove this but I bet AP stories go through fewer layers of editing than they used to.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at August 19, 2004 11:14 AMThis seems like a good time to pull out my all time newspaper favorite, culled from a 100% real, and not at all imaginary, source:
"At Risk Children's Drama Group In Jeopardy"
There's definitely something actually wrong, as opposed to just convoluted, with that sentence. If you replace "records concerning a" with "the" it becomes logical, but still convoluted. Looks like the author got lost in his own syntax.
Posted by: Alan Hogue at August 19, 2004 01:15 PMThey've amended it now to read:
"Kerry's response came as The Washington Post reported that a Vietnam veteran who claims Kerry lied about being under fire during a Mekong Delta engagement that won Kerry a Bronze Star was under constant fire himself during the same skirmish according to the man's own medal citation"
... which makes a bit more sense, though it's equally hideous to look at.
Posted by: Alan Allport at August 20, 2004 06:53 AM