OC Register Needs A Dictionary

Give the Environmental Left credit: they've polluted the the debate over the 241 tollroad completion with so much misinformation that it's bleeding into mainstream media coverage.

There's a good example in today's OC Register story on efforts by Representatives Loretta Sanchez and Ken Calvert to broker a deal on San Diego Rep. Susan Davis's attempt to kill the tollroad completion (which failed, and Sanchez wound up siding with Davis against Orange County).

"Calvert said any changes in the existing law would scuttle the toll road, which would cut San Onofre State Beach park in half." [emphasis mine]

"Cut in half"? Someone e-mail OCR writers Dena Bunis and Pat Brennan a link to Dictionary.com.

A "half" is "one of two equal or approximately equal parts of a divisible whole, as an object, or unit of measure or time; a part of a whole equal or almost equal to the remainder." Therefore, cutting San Onofre State Beach park in half is to divide it into equal parts.

The problem is, the OCR's claim is plain wrong.

The proposed route of the 241 completion doesn't "cut the park in half." What it actually does is run through the western edge of the park. So the OC Register's claim that the 241 would cut San Onofre State beach in half is absolutely false.

The same criticism applies to the caption of the accompanying photo:

"An aerial photo shows the area that the proposed 241 toll road extension would cut through, bisecting San Onofre State Park near the county line."

Bisect means "to cut or divide into two equal or nearly equal parts." Again, the OCR caption's claim is absolutely false.

This is important, since the OC Register is where most Orange Countians get their information about this controversy, and it's a shame to see it incorporating the language of tollroad opponents into its news stores -- especially in what is an otherwise very informative article.

POSTSCRIPT: I forgot to mention the OC Register's loaded headline: "Road Must Obey Law" -- which would imply the 241 has been violating the law. Which it hasn't. I guess it would have been too hard to write an accurate headline.

Comments

[Karl Rove]

Jubal,

What did you expect from them? You don't think for one minute that they would print something that presents the factual truth do you? They wouldn't sell newspapers that way.

Maybe it has to do with Greenhut leaving the republican party.....