I just may drop the Post a note about this one:
Pope Cites ‘New and Serious Difficulties’ With Anglicans (WaPo, marketing questions)
The article is worth looking at for the Holy Father’s words to the Archbishop of Canterbury, of course. But the line that rubbed me the wrong way was this one (emphasis added):
The ailing pontiff slurred his words but otherwise appeared alert.
We all know, of course, that for years the WaPo stylebook has dictated that the word “pontiff” shall always be preceded by the word “ailing”, whatever the actual topic of the story might be. (“Conservative” is acceptable as an occasional substitute.)
But the thing that angers me about this particular article is the callous assumption that of course the old guy is dozing off — and the callous and ignorant assumption that people who slur their speech do so out of a decreased level of consciousness. News flash, WaPo — it’s possible to be fully alert, fully engaged, and still speak unclearly. There are all kinds of people out there, with a wide range of speech disabilities, who might slur their words but are smarter and more alert than your reporter.
But as usual, when it comes to covering the Pope, there’s only one story that the Washington Post and her media sisters are really interested in writing and only one that they ever actually write: the next conclave — with the subplot of the battle for the Soul of the Church between the smart progressives v. the troglodyte hard-line conservatives. No matter what the actual story is, that’s the story they write. It just writes itself, doesn’t it?
Oh, and memo to the WaPo — don’t start planning your conclave coverage just yet. Like many frail elders, the Holy Father is going to have good days and bad days, and a few bad days are not enough to start buying your tickets for Rome. Jeanetta brings us this example.
UPDATE: Secret Agent Man fisks a ghoulish CNN story.
Fer cryin’ out loud, he’s Polish. How can anyone tell if he’s slurring? Nothing wrong with Slavic accents (I have always thought they sounded cool), but they articulate words so differently that a thick accent has always seemed a bit slurred. It is like the German idea that Americans talk with little potatoes rolling about in their mouths. Our languages have different ways of forming sounds.
When we saw the Holy Father last year I was able to understand him with not much more difficulty than he has always posed. He was in a bad state physically then (Vaticanisti vultures were particularly obnoxious), and as sharp as ever.
I have no problem with them using the word “ailing” since he is, and he is such a great living example of human dignity, even under constant suffering and pain. Let the world know! The people who would set him aside for a young man are the sorts who would execute their own grandparents “out of compassion.” Here is a great counter-example to the assumption of the Culture of Death. Let them remark on it ceaselessly.