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Rape a weapon of war in Congo, activists say
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| Lira |
Are journalists taught that, rather than submitting to the whimsical caprices of grammarians, it's important to be clear and (unless inevitable) unambiguous? If they are, we can thank the sane minds that try to make this a better world, and hope they get some more back up, because we need more of them. If not, we can thank the insane minds that write ambiguous news headlines, often with hilarious results.
Visiting CNN today, I stumbled upon a very curious headline: "Rape a weapon of war in Congo, activists say". My first reaction was to flinch back, squint, and think "Jesus Christ, pacifists are raping weapons now!?". Then it dawned on me, and I realised no bazookas had been sodomised. Rather, poor women (and sometimes children) were victims of sexual violence in Africa. Sure, that's still heart-breaking, but "shoot your load" would still mean "fire your ammo" in the war, and no images of hippies getting freaky with rocket launchers would burn your retina.
This is, as you can imagine, not unheard of (funny titles, not perverted hippies). The Associated Press reported last month that "McDonald's fries the holy grail for potato farmers": If you first thought Ronald McDonald incinerated antiquities, this is not your fault. Sometimes it's even harder to understand what kind of message they're trying to convey. Bad mental images are not uncommon if you try to figure out what "crash blossoms" are in a headline that reads "Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms", and if you're told "French left torn in two in row over EU constitution", it's only natural to think that a violent Europhile tore some poor French nationalist apart in a fight (actually, this on is quite tricky: this is about the French left - as in politics - being defeated two times consecutively).
Can you think of other unintentionally funny headlines? And, by the way, when you read the title, what did you think it meant? |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
:stongue:
Awesome post.
I read the headline as "rape is a weapon of war in the Congo." |
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| Renzo |
| But the headline was clear, Lira. That's how it's supposed to be written. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Renzo
But the headline was clear, Lira. That's how it's supposed to be written. |
It wouldn't hurt to add an "is" between "rape" and the following article, for clarity's sake, even if they always drop these so-called useless verbs in headlines :p |
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| iTranscendence |
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| Jarvmeister |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
It wouldn't hurt to add an "is" between "rape" and the following article, for clarity's sake, even if they always drop these so-called useless verbs in headlines :p |
So, it's always been like that, for a good reason. But because you made a mistake reading it and interpreting it (I didn't - and neither did MrJB) you thought you'd cry about it in the COR.
Good luck mustering up support for that one. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| I thought the point of Lira's post was mainly humor (which it accomplished, I think), not to whine. |
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| stren |
| I want to know what this part means "whimsical caprices of grammarians" |
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| tubularbills |
| quote: | Originally posted by stren
I want to know what this part means "whimsical caprices of grammarians" |
it means you're stupid, stren. you're stupid.
:p |
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| stren |
| quote: | Originally posted by tubularbills
it means you're stupid, stren. you're stupid.
:p |
I knew it !! goddamn Lira !:mad: :whip: |
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| Lira |
Hah, when I saw Stren posted in this thread, I thought he was going to say something about my sig :D
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
I thought the point of Lira's post was mainly humor (which it accomplished, I think), not to whine. |
Exactly :)
Jarv, English is not even my first language! I just read that and had a hilarious mental image I wanted to share (which was the interpretation of a sleep-deprived foreigner that lives thousands of kilometres away from any English speaking countries), and gave a few funny examples that were indeed poorly written (they're known as "Crash Blossoms" in a somewhat informal literature, being a special kind of Garden-Path Sentence)... and, although I was somewhat curious to know if anyone else had the same parsing error, my primary goal here was to just share lulzy thoughts with you guys.
| quote: | Originally posted by Jarvmeister
Good luck mustering up support for that one. |
This would be kind of funny, but I'm not sure most people would get it.
And I think that may be the reason why it is a good idea... hmm... |
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| Arbiter |
We need to launch an immediate attack against newspaper writers and editors for corrupting America's children with their atrocious grammar. Too long have these deviant institutions been permitted to work their subterfuge unfettered. It is imperitive that we send a message to them and their ilk that we will not stand idly by while they destroy America's youth.
To begin, I propose that we hunt down and rape every single newspaper editor in the country. Only through rape can we protect our children. |
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