|
C B C . C A N e w s - F u l l S t o r y :
Rumsfeld world's best language-mangler Last Updated Tue Dec 2 09:24:22 2003
LONDON--
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has emerged the "clear" winner
for a British award given to the worst mangler of the English language.
The Plain English Campaign has handed Rumsfeld this year's "Foot in
Mouth" prize for statements he made about the hunt for Iraq's weapons of
mass destruction. The campaign strives to have public information
delivered in straightforward English.
Rumsfeld's baffling message?
"Reports that say something hasn't happened are interesting to me,
because as we know, there are known unknowns; there are things we know
we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know
there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown
unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know."
"We think we know what he means. But we don't know if we really know,"
said John Lister, spokesman for the campaign.
The campaign says Rumsfeld beat out actor-turned-politician Arnold
Schwarzenegger, whose contribution was: "I think that gay marriage is
something that should be between a man and a woman."
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien didn't even make the short list for his
contribution last September when he said: "I know, a proof is a proof.
What kind of a proof is a proof? A proof is a proof and when you have a
good proof it's because it's proven."
Previous award winners include actress Alicia Silverstone and British
chancellor Gordon Brown. Last year's worst language-mangler was actor
Richard Gere, who said: "I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If
I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I'd think, `No,
actually I'm a giraffe'."
The campaign gives out eight other prizes for bad English including
worst e-mail, bad instructions or confusing regulations.
Written by CBC News Online staff
|