Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

The rule of chainsaws, swords, and scalpels

I don't normally pick on the media for spelling, (being generally a semantic commentator rather than orthographic), but this one is a howler:

"Actress Sharon Stone has filed a liable suit against an LA plastic surgeon for comments...."

- although their insertion of the following as the last paragraph also raises an eyebrow:

"AXcess News will be reporting on any new market trends related to this story".

Not exactly professional standards here - it's hard to image what "trends" may exactly arise from a "liable" case. Spare a thought however for the Zimbabwean who is currently facing jail for telling his brother to not be as "thick-headed as Mugabe" on a public bus, after another man was jailed there recently for eight months after calling the president "a dictator who rules by the sword". Not to mention the targets of a vigorous campaign by a timber company in Tasmania to sue representatives of the Green movement for "vilifying" the company by such means as protest banners and slogans - one writ recipient observing the "writs are an unprecedented attack on free speech and their right to protest". Strange, the notion that a 42 per cent increase in profit for the company last year amounts to "business injury or potential business loss". Stranger still, that the High Court's clear ruling that Australians enjoy the implicit right to political free speech seems not to register with the executives of that company. It's hard to imagine how one could notionally clearfell and poison wilderness areas for profit and expect people not to object - but then again, the use of defamation law to stifle debate seems to be increasingly popular.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 10:38 am ::