The Korean(-American) passive "himself"?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/23/2007 12:42 PM, Jon L. wrote:
>Having knocked Fox News here frequently, genuine fairness compels me
>[note "dangling participle"] to question the claim that Fox News
>"confidently identified" the VT shooter as a Chinese Al Qaeda member.
>
>   I had the channel on all day, and at some point into the story
> somebody wondered whether
>   the shooter, identified as "Asian," could conceivably have been
> "linked" (I believe that was the word used) to Al Qaeda.  Nobody
> elaborated on the suggestion, and I did not hear it repeated.  It
> was essentially a throwaway line.

Isn't that all that Fox News is -- throwaway lines?  More seriously,
though, this tactic allows them to disavow whatever they've said.

Joel

>   If Fox News ever claimed that Cho was actually connected with Al
> Qaeda, I'd like to know about it.
>
>   JL
>    "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
>Subject: Re: The Korean(-American) passive "himself"?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Apr 20, 2007, at 10:08 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
> > I think the overriding concern here is the right to be presumed
> > innocent
> > until found guilty in court in the US. If the reporter said that
> > Cho did
> > it, then there might even be a case of libel or bad reporting at
> > the least.
>
>but in this case (and many similar ones, like the Columbine
>shootings), there can never be a court finding of guilt, because
>there can never be a trial. when the identity of the perpetrator(s)
>is clear, no one ever has a problem with identifying them as such,
>even though they are (and forever will be) "innocent" in the legal
>sense.
>
>another case where legal language and ordinary language don't work
>quite the same.
>
>arnold
>
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