Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Words

The story of the man who was shot by an air marshal has been reported in two different ways. One version reports that the man "claimed he had a bomb in his backpack." The other reports that the man "said there was a bomb in his backpack."

I don't which is true and I have no tone of voice to work with. But I can imagine, "I have a bomb in my backpack," sounds either threatening or maybe bragging. "There's a bomb in my backpack," sounds scared or surprised, particularly when you're thinking of the man being paranoid.

I'm not saying it would have made a difference to the air marshal. But it certainly does make a difference if the journalist is trying to rationalize the air marshal's response.

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