Look, so-called “journalists” who actually, you know, write or edit or publish stuff for a paycheck get paid, in largepart, to be professional wordsmiths. A plumber who can’t solder a pipe joint–or perform similar essential tasks–or en electrician who can’t properly wire and outlet are stealing when they get paid to do those things improperly. Just so “journalists” who don’t even bother to use the language they’re writing in correctly.
Latest example (of many–this is just the one that was this week’s “last straw”–and so early in the week, too *sigh*)? Obscured for obscure reasons, a caption under a photo:
“‘X’ is skeptical about ‘y’ and let’s it be known… ”
WTF?!? “‘X’ is skeptical about ‘y’ and LET US it be known… “?!?
No, “‘X’ is skeptical about ‘y’ and LETS it be known… ”
It wouldn’t have been so bad except that there were more than a few other examples of stupid grammar and word MIS-usage in the same article.
You see similar idiotic misuses of apostrophes all the time, I’m sure. Similar; not same. Prime example (seen too many times to count in the last few days, which is probably what tipped me over the edge when I saw this very different misuse of an apostrophe):
It’s for its. “It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it was” etc. Pronoun-verb. “Its” is the possessive form of “it”–just as “hers” is the possessive form of “her” and “his” of “him” and “ours” of “our”. When someone consistently writes “it’s” when intending to indicate a possessive form of “it” you can count on it that they’re not really literate in English. When that person–say a so-called “journalist–is collecting a paycheck for writing something, that person is a thief. Who can trust “reporting” done by someone who collects a paycheck for not doing his job competently–and is willing to prove it by his writing? Not this guy.
Oh, there are worse excrescences, even apostrophe-based offenses (“‘s” to indicate plurals, for example *shudder* the habit of true idiots), but so many people who GET PAID TO WRITE are the next thing to complete illiterates that it just chaps my gizzard.