Fellow good English advocate Gerry Gelacio—he joined the Forum as a member recently—sent in last April 9 the following critiques of errant media English (all underscoring mine):
1. From “Museo Orlina: Glass, Light, Magic” by Ida Anita Q. del Mundo in The Philippine Starweek, December 15, 2013 issue:
Lead sentence: “Glass is magical... It is a very strong material, at the same time it is fragile,” imminent glass sculptor Ramon Orlina muses.
Error: The writer should have used “eminent” instead of “imminent.”
(Note: Bryan A. Garner, in his book Modern American Usage, says that confusing “imminent” with “eminent” is a common error.)
2. Headline from the tabloid Bulgar, April 3, 2014 issue:
WARRANT KINA ENRILE, BONG, JINGGOY, NEXT
Comment: I know who Enrile, Bong, and Jinggoy are. But I don’t know who “NEXT” is.
The headline should have been:
NEXT: WARRANT KINA ENRILE, BONG, JINGGOY
(Note to Gerry: For your subsequent media English critiques, feel free to post them directly to the My Media English Watch discussion board. Just provide a suitable descriptive title for each new posting.)
