Thursday, February 09, 2006
Linguistic Abuse. Republicans have a nasty habit of linguistically disparaging Democrats by using "Democrat" as an adjective. I sent the following short emailed objection to the New York Post today.
Why does the Post publish usages like this: "Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, and Spitzer, the state attorney general, are both eyeing the Democrat nomination for governor"? "Democrat" is a noun. The adjective is "Democratic". Any competent copy editor would automatically change "Democrat [nomination]" to "Democratic". Do Democratic-disposed publications have to invent a disrespectful term for the adjectival form of "Republican"? Would Republicans like media to say "Repub nomination", "Publican nomination", or "Scumbaggan nomination" rather than "Republican nomination"? Reputable publications do not use disrespectful slang to disparage a major American political party.
(Responsive to "Flanking Eliot", op-ed piece by Charles E.F. Millard in the New York Post of February 9, 2006)
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,264.)