The Justified State

» Myshka - Where are the movies?

I read this article with interest, and even sympathy. I felt, however, that its potential impact was severely damaged by the evident lack of proofreading and a poor grasp of English language and grammar shown by the author. Four of the most egregious errors are below:

"Wilfred Burchett (Whinny Bullshit) school of journalism." Please note that "whinny" is how horses communicate, "whiny" (or possibly "whiney" if you're old fashioned) is that irritating sound made by tired four year olds.

". . . use foreign countries; such as the U.K."
Improper use of a semi-colon; it should be a comma.

"In the mis - quote of the report, Pilger either mis - read or mis - interpreted the data."

Misquote, misread and misinterpreted are all perfectly valid English words, so the use of hyphens is not required. When hyphens are used to prevent mispronuciation or misunderstanding, spaces should not separate them from the words they join, e.g., mother-in-law.

"Supposed compiled by Professor Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire, it is an unpublished manuscript of which has had no peer review."

Perhaps the author was trying to say "Supposedly compiled by Professor Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire, those statistics appear in an unpublished manuscript which has not been subjected to peer review."

While I agree that the article in The Mirror is inflammatory and inaccurate in many of its conclusions, I find myself regretfully forced to condemn this author's rush to judgment without at least consulting any proofreaders.

Besides, what on *earth* does this article have to do with military movies?

Please stick to your topic. Surely this should have been published on one of the political fora?

I have been a subscriber to this topic for a couple of months now, and have yet to see any articles about movies. (The previous article was merely a re-telling of an old joke.) Hart's War? Windtalkers? K-19? Lots of fodder for discussion is out there.

-- posted by Myshka

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» HMAGUY - Re: Where are the movies?

In response to message posted by Myshka:

Thank you for those English lessons. Having written and edited technical documents for many years, I disagree with certain of your proofing comments. Further, I do proofread my articles. In my time on Earth, I have found that the two greatest human urges are procreation and rewriting. Remember, sometimes mistakes are there on purpose and sometimes mistakes are there by mistake.

As to the question, "Where are the movies?" If one were to observe, one would see that this site deals not just with movies but a more expanded view of commenting on both visual and written media. Also, I did write in the end of the article that, "Unfortunately, writers like Pilger today and Burchett earlier tend to get air time. Equally unfortunately, our media outlets do not do enough research to counter what Pilger and his ilk have written and will say." The article stands as a cautionary tale of how easily our media outlets can be mislead through individuals such as Pilger or Burchett.

Under that criterea, I will continue to endeavor in this site to comment on anything appearing in written or visual media that strikes my fancy. Deal with it.

Thanks for the comment and keep reading.

-- posted by HMAGUY

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