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I don't have a strong view about this, and I certainly understand why the BBC is using quotation marks in the way it is. But if I were an editor at the BBC, I t
by pdabbadabba 11y ago
I don't have a strong view about this, and I certainly understand why the BBC is using quotation marks in the way it is. But if I were an editor at the BBC, I think I would be uncomfortable with the fact that the quotations communicate the wrong message to so many readers -- and, worse, mistakenly suggest that my publication is being snarky or skeptical of the claims highlighted in the headline. This seems like very much the opposite of the quotation marks' desired effect.
- mikeash 11y agoYou're right, even if this usage may be perfectly acceptable, if it gives a lot of people the wrong idea it's probably time to change.
- jasonlotito 11y agoKowtowing to the lowest common denominator shouldn't be done lightly. We are on a site called Hacker News, after all.
- pdabbadabba 11y ago> Kowtowing to the lowest common denominator shouldn't be done lightly Certainly not when you put it like that! But you might also call it "communicating effectively with your audience." So maybe kowtowing isn't so bad after all when it just involves responding to the linguistic conventions observed by your readers, and the goal is simply communication. I also don't know that people who read quotation marks as connoting doubt, in the absence of any other evident reason for them, can fairly be called "the lowest common denominator."