Making a Hames of it

Malcolm has long been suspicious of the journalistic standards of the Times. Fact-checking seems a thing of the past. Columnists apparently have free rein.

Here's today's contribution, courtesy of Tim Hames:

New Jersey comfortably re-elected its Democratic senator even though he (like many politicians before him in that famously ethically challenged place) is under federal criminal investigation.

Re-reading that, Malcolm's second thoughts are that the style manual of the Times also needs reviewing, particularly with respect to the use of the comma and the hyphen.

The Star-Ledger of that great State (20 October), which might be closer to the horse's mouth, said:

It is true that federal investigators subpoenaed records concerning Menendez's landlord-tenant relationship with a nonprofit organization for which he helped procure federal funds, money used, at least in part, to pay $300,000 in rent to Menendez. But it's unclear whether Menendez is a target of a criminal probe.

By the way, as Terry Dolan's dictionary wouldn't quite say, "making a hames" of something is a good Hibernicism for an English cock-up. As for the significance of the illustration, just look it up. Sphere: Related Content