ABC's 'Sic' Choice Suggests Belief in Afterlife an Error

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

sic: thus; so. Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally. - Answers.com definition

Adding religious insult to mortal injury, ABC's coverage of the death of the 3000th US service-person in Iraq seemed to suggest that there was something odd or erroneous in the expression of a traditional belief in the afterlife.

Today's "Good Morning America" focused on the death of Army Specialist Dustin Donica of Texas, believed to be that 3000th serviceman lost in Iraq. Narrating the segment, ABC's Jonathan Karl stated: "The MySpace page he left behind bears the tributes of those whose lives he touched." The screen then displayed the message [shown larger-than-normal here for clarity's sake] from one of those friends:

"You were one of my best friends and I'll never forget you. All my prayers go to your family and I'll see you again." (sic)

There can be no doubt that the friend was expressing his expectation to see Dustin again in the world to come. That the reference to seeing Dustin again was prefaced by a mention of the family being in the friend's prayers emphasizes that religious faith was being expressed.

But for ABC, traditional religious belief is so odd or erroneous as to require it to add its condescending little sic.

Mark was in Iraq in November. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net

[Robert A Cook PE]

Mark Finkelstein is a Knight?

He's probably in the Knights of Pythias.

Knights of Columbus? 8<)

[governsleastgovernsbest]

That's exactly right. ABC apparently thought the religiously-based idea of expecting to see his friend ago was so odd that they wanted people to understand that it wasn't a transcription error.

[Robert A Cook PE]

My interpretation as well, despite the meally-mouthed cover-the-media's-tailpipe excuses.

[MississippiMan]

Sorry, while I certainly don't in any way question the blatant and sneering atheism of ABC, this would not have been my take on this one. It's a head-scratcher to me as to why the "sic" was used at all, since my first inference when seeing it is always a spelling error, that doesn't exist in this passage. Or perhaps there WAS a spelling error that they already corrected?

Again, every element of the MSM is repugnant to the core; I think the MSM are the greatest practical threat we face. I just don't see this one.

MM

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

The quote was . . . in quotes, so there was no further need to indicate that it was a verbatim!!

That's not always true. I saw Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal's so-called quotes once, and it was obvious that someone had cleaned up his English grammar within the quotes. It was so glaring as to be ridiculous. There should be a word that shows that quotes have been tampered with.

[aruanan]

It seems that you are taking extreme liberty with what you assume the transcriber meant. Argh, if that helps move things along.

I see what you mean:

Can you provide a clear-cut example of 'sic' ever having been used in that way?

Virtually every use of "sic" is used to show that the text or transcription, regardless of what the transcriber or transmitter thinks of it, is being portrayed as found. That some people, such as Michael Fumento, use it in a humorous fashion to draw attention to the extreme levels of illiteracy and illogic of those who write to flame him, is secondary; even he would not be using it unless he wanted to indicate that what he was transmitting was what the person actually said or wrote and was not due to his carelessness in transcribing or to his bias in reporting (Gulf War sickness and vaccine cranks seem to be the worst in illiteracy, illogic, and ill will). For example:

Subject: Misinformed

Tell it to my now 6 year old who was developmentally completely normal until 2 weeks after his vaccines in 2000. The DPT he was given had methyl [sic] mercury. as [sic] did the other 5 shots given to him the same day. The tragedy is the vaccne [sic] schedule being pushed on children too early when they are not developed enough. you [sic] really misjudge parents. we [sic] simply want the truth, and neither extreme in the vaccine conflict is right.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Amy

Dear Amy,

If you simply want truth, why do you tell people that your child received vaccines containing methyl mercury when it has never been an ingredient in any vaccine?

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Sincerely,
Michael Fumento

[unspun]

Good catch and stuff.

[Tax-chick]

Maybe the (sic) was because the person didn't put a comma after "family," thus: "... your family, and I'll ..."

[Ro_Thunder]

That's exactly what I was meaning, in that I just always thought that's what it meant. I did not bother to look up the definition, and never realized it actually imparts that there is a perceived error in the text. Our editorial section(s) of the local fishwrap use (sic) all the time.

[dixiechick2000]

Nice one!

ABC News is *sic*.

Thank you for the post and ping.