March 12, 2001

11:32 AM

More proof CNN layoffs have screwed CNN.com"Completely destroyed?" (Paragraph 3) Man, I learned not to use that redundancy in freshman J-school. Geez. Turn out the lights, Ted, the party's over.
posted by darren (28 comments total)

But the Taleban's closest ally, Pakistan, believes the international community needs to accept that it had played a role in the statues destruction.

Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said countries didnt send enough envoys to plead with the radical Muslim group.

Apparently, apostrophes also were eliminated by Time-Warner as a cost-cutting measure.
posted by darren at 11:36 AM on March 12, 2001

Yeah, and that whole thing about historical treasures of humanity being lost forever kind of sucks, too.
posted by fuzzynavel at 11:37 AM on March 12, 2001

Yeah, we've done that thread, though.

Besides, what are you, some kind of "Buddist freak?"
posted by darren at 11:55 AM on March 12, 2001

I don't know, is pointing out spelling & grammar errors in a CNN article really considered a worthwhile topic of conversation? By the way, you misspelled "Buddhist," but I'm going to resist the urge to post a story about it :)
posted by zempf at 11:58 AM on March 12, 2001

Why should CNN matter when you can watch ""in-your-face, X-treme lawmaking coverage" on X-SPAN?
posted by crog at 12:31 PM on March 12, 2001

You want to be ticked, check this out:Yahoo News search for the phrase "completely destroyed"

6 different stories that used that same construction. How dare they work as journalists! How dare they!
posted by smackfu at 2:31 PM on March 12, 2001

Sorry, I'm not a native english speaker and I can't understand what the heck is wrong with "completely destroyed".

Can somebody give me a tip?

Thanks.
posted by kchristidis at 2:37 PM on March 12, 2001

kchristidis: "destroyed" implies "completely." you don't partially destroy anything.

i think. i'm not in j-school, but i do write for a newspaper.

maybe i'm dumb. heh.
posted by sugarfish at 2:51 PM on March 12, 2001

If something is destroyed - there is nothing left of it. Therefore the word "completely" is an unnecessary modifier. Usually pops up as the imagined obverse of "partially destroyed", which is also bad form. It's like the phrase "totally unique". If something is unique, it either is or is not unique, there are no shades of gray, so modifier words are useless appendages.

Nothing evil, just bad form where concise writing is encouraged.
posted by kokogiak at 2:51 PM on March 12, 2001

I think it should be "literally completely destroyed"
posted by gluechunk at 2:55 PM on March 12, 2001

...in it's entirety.
posted by crunchland at 3:34 PM on March 12, 2001

...to the point that absolutely nothing recognizable was left.
posted by daveadams at 3:43 PM on March 12, 2001

...at all.
posted by daveadams at 3:44 PM on March 12, 2001

Reminds me of George Carlin's piece on "final destinations"...
posted by frednorman at 3:47 PM on March 12, 2001

from the department of redundancy department, even.
posted by trox at 4:15 PM on March 12, 2001

Is that *destroyed* destroyed or just destroyed?
posted by rodii at 4:26 PM on March 12, 2001

Do not be frightened or afraid of these grammatical constructions and syntactic structures! I have arrived to ensure victory and have come to save the day! Where ever there is redundency, I will seek it out and search for it! Where ever the glass is completely full, I will be there! I will never leave a job until I have finished completing it.
However, it looks like my work here is completely done.
[Musical orchestral flare, followed by an ordinary commonplace superhero exit.]
posted by RedundencyMan at 4:51 PM on March 12, 2001

However, it looks like my work here is completely done.
Fallacious impostor! The worldwide global community will see though your counterfeit deception.
Each and every superhero has an archnemesis adversary. You just happen (coincidently) to be mine. I will completely destroy you, RedundencyMan!
(On a side note, who is DoublePost Guy's archnemesis adversary?)
posted by RedundancyMan at 5:06 PM on March 12, 2001

SinglePostGuy, obviously.
posted by kindall at 5:32 PM on March 12, 2001

I'd figure it'd be InfinitePostGuy or something, cause that'd be far, far worse than the usual double post.
posted by zempf at 8:14 PM on March 12, 2001

*BAMPH* I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I'm going to go get DoublePostGuy and we will settle this! No one should be frightened, it is quite common for superhero's to mistake each others intentions, and have a battle royale. hisss hissss *BAMPH*
posted by Twice_Posted_Lad at 8:32 PM on March 12, 2001

oh no, does this mean that CNN is dn... ;-)

http://neirp.com/


posted by muppetboy at 9:38 PM on March 12, 2001

I can't believe nobody made a Mojo Jojo joke in this entire rant on redundancy...
posted by wiremommy at 10:25 PM on March 12, 2001

I think that we have completely deconstructed this phrase.
posted by ktheory at 12:15 AM on March 13, 2001

Shall we attack two more media favorites, "brutal rape" or "tragic murder."?
posted by darren at 6:51 AM on March 13, 2001

hisss hissss *BAMPH*
You really don't need that second hiss.
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:47 AM on March 13, 2001

sugarfish & kokogiak thank you for you help and explanations.

I have now realised that the editors over there at CNN.com must feel completely destroyed with all these faults...

(Just kidding...)
posted by kchristidis at 2:52 PM on March 13, 2001