Here’s an amusing edit job by the Chronicle of a N.Y. Times story. It’s a piece about Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada who is expected to become the new Senate minority leader. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska likens Sen. Reid to Mister Rogers:
“When the conservative talk show hosts start saying bad things about Harry Reid, it will be like attacking Mr. Rogers,” Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, said of Mr. Reid, who shares Mr. Rogers’s affection for a cardigan.
The N.Y. Times often refers to people in articles with a Mr. or a Ms. in front of the last name. So Sen. Reid was referred to as Mr. Reid and Sen. Joe Biden was referred to as Mr. Biden. The problem begins with the N.Y. Times reporters writing Mr. Rogers. The correct way is to spell out Mister. Then, the Chronicle takes all the Mr.‘s out of the story, as is its norm, and we get this:
“When the conservative talk show hosts start saying bad things about Harry Reid, it will be like attacking Rogers,” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said of Reid, who shares Rogers’ affection for cardigans.
Woops! It took me several readings and a check of the story on the N.Y. Times website to confirm that Sen. Nelson was talking about Mister Rogers.
