Reversed "avowal"

[Joel S. Berson]

Headline, NYTimes, Aug.17, page 1, col. 1, and repeated inside:

"Letter counters hacking avowals from News Corp."

The letter was written by Clive Goodman, un-rehired former royal
correspondent for the News of the World, who is disputing claims by
various News Corp. executives and editors that they knew nothing.

This "avowal" is certainly not an "I do" (or "I did") hacking -- the
OED definition is "An act of avowing; acknowledgement, declaration;
unconstrained admission or confession" -- but rather a denial of
hacking.  (They certainly did not admit or confess; even "hacking
*declaration*" would tend towards the incorrect meaning.)  It is
perhaps their avowal that they knew nothing .  Still,

"Letter counters hacking denials from News Corp."

would have been much realer.

Joel

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