Saturday, May 11, 2013

Alarmed and dangerous

There's more to this correction than the local fishwrap lets on. Here's what appears to be the relevant sentence from the online version of Monday's story:

The security was needed because Michiganders at a state auction of drilling lands last year became violent — “one guy pulled a gun” — and officers made seven arrests, MDEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel said.

I can see getting a department spokesman and a department official mixed up somewhere amid the notes and emails or whatever. And "firearm" for "fire alarm" -- maybe it's a stretch for a telephone error, but it's hardly implausible. Except that's not what the quote says. The quote says "pulled a gun," and the quotation marks are supposed to mean that's exactly -- not kinda-sorta -- what the speaker said. Given that distinction, maybe we should know a little more about how this error came about.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Tybalt said...

Jeezum crow is there anyone left on earth who knows what quotation marks do?

8:00 AM, May 12, 2013  

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