Friday, December 7, 2007

Gratuitous Allusions and Made-Up Quotes

Construction crews are busy installing huge, pre-fab concrete walls that will eventually enclose a new event center downtown. Everyone at the raising of the first slab Wednesday was wowed by the industrial-scale ballet of placing the first of five 50-foot tall slabs into place. Unfortunately, the local reporter couldn’t just be impressed; he felt the need to impress.

PUNTA GORDA – In 1987, standing at the Brandenburg Gate at the Berlin Wall, President Ronald Reagan called for Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
XXIn Punta Gorda Wednesday, for many, the call was, “stand that wall up.”
Not one (nor many) of the observers interviewed for the story is reported as saying “stand that wall up.” So, our trusty reporter -- in addition to selecting a presidential speech about razing a wall as his lead for a local story about workmen raising a building -- felt the need to fabricate. What real people really said just wasn’t good enough.



1 comment:

  1. Even the cadence is wrong: tear down this wall vs. stand that wall up. The man has a tin ear.

    I-75 Reader

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