Bree's Blog

Fans of the TV show LOST who lingered after the season premiere for the eleven o'clock news probably wish they hadn't. WCVB, ABC's affiliate in Boston, featured a story about a convicted child rapist who was released from prison over a year ago. Though he had recently registered in New Bedford as a Level 3 sex offender — the most dangerous designation in the state of Massachusetts — Corey Saunders managed to walk into a public library and rape a 6-year-old boy in the stacks.
 

For the lead-in to this traumatic story, the reporter obviously intended to comment on the judicial oversight in letting Corey Saunders (above) roam the streets, but what the reporter actually said was that this was the disturbing story of a child rapist who "slipped through the cracks…in more ways than one."For the lead-in to this traumatic story, the reporter obviously intended to comment on the judicial oversight in letting Saunders, whom prosecutors deemed highly likely to strike again, roam the streets. But what the reporter actually said was that this was the disturbing story of a child rapist who "slipped through the cracks…in more ways than one."
 
I'm not normally a nightly news watcher. Now I remember why.
 
What a colossal mistake. I sat watching the story with equal parts incredulity and horror, unable to tear myself away from the TV. Such a cringe-worthy choice of words must have been accidental. Yet this unfortunate turn of phrase was more than merely distasteful: it was thoughtless. It was a careless and irresponsible use of language. And it's not an isolated incident.

 

Think, then speak
 
The reportage fiasco is indicative of an alarming trend in America: we no longer think before we speak. Language, especially the verbal application of it (once called "rhetoric" and wielded with great gusto), is a dying art — if it hasn't succumbed to a gruesome murder already.
 
English boasts one of the richest and most extensive vocabularies of any language in the world. Estimates as to the number of words in the English language range from 475,000 to one million, easily eclipsing other languages; French, for example, has less than 100,000 words. And English is exceptionally absorbent, constantly appropriating a large number of neologisms, foreign words, and slang into the lexicon each year. Whether or not this is a good thing — try asking a literature prof how he feels about "crunk" showing up in Merriam-Webster last year — it can't be denied that English is unusually diverse.
 
"A vast vocabulary is that it affords precision"With such diversity comes opportunity. The beauty of drawing from such a vast vocabulary is that it affords precision. Because we have such a wealth of choices, we can select the word or grouping of words that best describes our nebulous thoughts and ginormous (now a real word, circa 2007) ideas. As English speakers, we have an incredible ability to be specific when we speak — perhaps more so than the people in any other culture.
 
"It was like watching a train wreck — with a flawless manicure"Yet specificity and precision aren't exactly the hallmarks of modern English usage. In an era when efficiency is everything, many people rarely take the time to elect the most precise way to cast a phrase. It's much easier to rely on cliché, borrowing expressions we've heard before and then proceeding to (mis)use them. Take, for example, Miss Teen South Carolina's much-discussed debut at the Miss Teen USA Pageant: words strung together with no cohesive thought behind them.  It was like watching a train wreck — with a flawless manicure.
 
We'll chalk that up to the South Carolina school system and too much bleach. But "slipped through the cracks" when talking about a rape? Come on. It's bad enough without the ominous "in more ways than one" tacked on the end. At that point I nearly dropped the remote control into my clam chowder.
 
As if hapless news reporters aren't enough, there are others who get lost amidst the abundance of verbal options and decide, "Screw it — I'll invent something new." Is this some form of Orwellian Newspeak twenty-four years past due? Doubtful, considering the latest evolution to hit the national stage seems to be a messy tangle of nonsensical words and phrases dubbed "Bushisms." Our President continues to go where no man has gone before, even linguistically. 
 
The flip side is that language, when used correctly, is a powerful ally. And America could use all the allies we can get.
 
"the flub was a cliché innocently positioned as an enticing hook"In the case of WCVB's recent newscast, the flub was a cliché innocently positioned as an enticing hook. But once spoken, the specific choice of words was immediately explicit, a shocking insult to the young victim and his family. A careless linguistic choice quickly became a grossly inappropriate mistake. ABC News should be mortified. At least Alexis Debat's slush was well-constructed.
 
As English speakers, it is our privilege to be able to choose what we say and how we say it with rigorous and exacting precision. Let's try not to forget that it's also our responsibility.
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Read the previous reports on cc2day about this case;

• A call for Judge Moses to resign
• Judge had freed sex offender