Things fall apart

Is there any lesson in copy editing more basic than this one?

The person who stole the head (or the bobblehead, or the bobblehead head, depending on which part of the story you read) is the "bandit." The person who's in custody is a "suspect." You don't know, and the cops have yet to demonstrate, that they're the same person. Unless you have a sign on your forehead that says "Lawyers: Let me show you how to take lots of my employer's money," you would do well to attend to the distinction.

It looks easy in the way that infielders make hard ground balls look easy: if you can't get them right, you don't get to call yourself a pro for very long.

I can has whacking great libel judgment?

I shall not cease from mental fight Nor shall my O hai! The British media system is a thing of beauty sometimes, innit?  There's an actual diversity of opinion among the print press! A public broadcasting sector that doesn't spend two weeks begging for money every six months!* Heds that call the prime minister a "dickhead"! A complicated system of noun formation that yields 108 words for "nude pic row vicar"! And a widespread tendency in some outlets to, um, just make stuff up -- particularly when it comes to smearing people and groups you don't like: politically, socially or culturally.

British libel law** is stacked toward the plaintiff in ways that can do real damage to the robust discussion of public issues. Less chillingly, it also has a habit of extracting the sort of admission that the Sun ran today (continuing from the screenshot above):

We now accept that these allegations are totally untrue. Mr Subramanyam, whose sole aim has always been to promote the Tamil cause, did not eat any food at all during his hunger strike.

We apologise to Mr Subramanyam and his family for any upset and embarrassment caused and are paying him a substantial sum in damages.


In other words, the Sun (and the Mail, which also ran the burger story) made it up and got caught, and now they have to admit that they lied like cheap rugs.

That might seem like just another of those quaint British traditions, like the TR3 and genuinely good beer, that are interesting on paper but irrelevant to daily life in These United States.*** Consider, though, how many fabrications from the right-wing British press find their way into the news on our side of the pond: Muslims gum up NHS by making nurses turn beds toward Mecca five times a day! Qaida prepares breast-bombers for attack! Obama thinks we can beat the terrorists by watching "Star Wars"! When those start to work their way onto the national agenda, you might want to consider the source.

* And giveth us Monty Python and Dr. Who in its spare time amen.
** We started diverging from the mother country's libel laws while we were still a colony; Zenger was settled in 1735. Raise a glass next Thursday to the principle that truth is a complete defense!
*** Unless you're following the flap over the NYPost's bogus con liver outrage story. Heh.