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People occasionally accuse me of focusing too intensely on things like grammar, lexical choice or the tone of a message. But leave it to an oblivious journalist to show how this kind of intensity needs to be practiced. I was watching the local television news the other day. During the sports section, over a montage of passes from Drew Brees to various New Orleans Saints receivers, the sportscaster said, “And a Super Bowl win would give the struggling city of New Orleans a much needed lift.” Cringing, I shook my head in disbelief. He really said that? Here is a visual representation of New Orleans before the much needed lift from a Super Bowl win:
And here is New Orleans after the much needed lift from a Super Bowl win:
You will notice that the person in the representation is certainly lifted in spirit. But here is why what the sportscaster said was in incredibly poor taste. Those symbols are not arbitrary, by the way: a tilde represents ocean, and a hyphen, land. New Orleans is a densely populated bowl situated almost entirely below sea level. Giving New Orleans a much needed lift like this:
could actually prevent another disaster along the lines of Hurricane Katrina, saving countless lives, easing untold human suffering, and preventing the loss of billions of dollars of infrastructure and housing. And there is never any reason to say football could ever, ever give a struggling city that kind of much needed lift. Much needed “morale boost” anyone? |
