I’m looking at you, Wall Street Journal. It looks like you took your coverage of the royal engagement from USA Today and then had a seventh grade girl rewrite it, and then your picture headline (which I no longer have in front of me and can’t find on their website) is something like “Living Solider Wins Medal of Honor”.
I think that’s just incredibly crass and tacky. It’s much more appropriate to say “is awarded” or “is recognized with” or “receives”. You don’t win a valor award because it isn’t a competition - you certainly aren’t trying to come in first, you aren’t competing with others to get it, etc. You did something above and beyond the call of duty and now we are recognizing your bravery and selflessness with an award.
Well, I wouldn’t think it was important if you came up to me and said, “Hey, did you hear about that guy who won the Medal of Honor?” But if you were, say, an editor of a major national newspaper and you were writing a headline above the fold, I’d expect a little more of you.
I don’t think it’s “tacky” per se but “win” implies something that you’re trying for and hoping to get. The Medal of Honor is military, right? (I think of the full phrase ‘Congressional Medal of Honor’ which for some reason suggests it might be awarded to non-military at times but I could be wrong).
Anyway - the sort of extraordinary achievements that would result in someone being awarded this? Well, either they’re military and it’s awarded for actions in an extremely dangerous situation (which even most military people don’t seek out / hope for - who wants to be shot at?), or private citizens doing extraordinary things that they’d be driven to do anyway.
Yeah I guess it might warrant a brief letter to the editor if you were that way inclined. I must admit my expectations of the media have dropped significantly in the past ten years or so.
No kidding - when I went to their website to find the headline (because I’m too lazy to go upstairs where I put the issues out on the floor) there was a huge picture and ad for their story on buying investment luxury goods. Like purses. Just in case they had some extra credibility they wanted to get rid of.
It is tacky and crass, and the WSG should know better. However, copy editors, who are the ones who write the headlines, are forever trying to come up with what will fill the space and short little words like “wins” are like pearls. He/she might have tried “receives” first and “earns” didn’t fit either and “gets” didn’t sound right and then he wrote it all over again and shit-it’s-deadline and oh, hell, let’s-go-with-“wins.” Sloppy work.
For lack of a better option, I went ahead and chose tacky and crass – but I’d chalk it up more to just lazy writing. I’d have probably said “earns” or “receives,” but I think headline writers are more in the habit of counting letters than worrying about nuance.
Yep. I kinda remember a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits type episode in which people with exceptional talents were unable to perform in their area of expertise; like a ballet dancer had to carry extra weight, or a newscaster had to be homely with a speech impediment.
So maybe the media is intentionally being dumbed-down so that the lower end of the IQ curve isn’t feeling badly.
If Denzel Washington has taught me anything, it’s that you “receive” the Medal of Honor - it’s not a contest. Also, it’s just called the Medal of Honor, not the Congressional Medal of Honor.
It wouldn’t have occurred to me but yes, I agree with you. I read some of his comments yesterday, it was obvious he would trade in his win to have the whole thing never have happened in the first place.
Count me in the “it is not correct, but headlines routinely rape the English language so what are you going to do?” camp.
If anyone hasn’t seen it, try to check out last Sunday’s 60 Minutes on the soldier receiving the Medal of Honor. An amazing story, and the guy is as humble as the day is long. It sure sounded like he really does not want the medal.
Huh. I love Vonnegut, and I’m sure I’ve read the short story. But I also seem to remember a similar story in B&W television from the late sixties with mask wearing newscasters and weighted ballerinas.
Just checked and Netflix doesn’t have Harrison Bergeron. Oh well.