There’s no need to go into CNN’s big scoop about an arrest in the Boston Marathon bombings that proved to be inaccurate; who can compete with “The Daily Show”?
I want to draw attention to another CNN misstep two days later, when one of the bombing suspects already had been killed and authorities were closing in on his accomplice brother.
In this case, CNN was right before it was wrong – only 41 minutes apart.
At 7:25 a.m., CNN noted on screen that a manhunt was “under way.” By 8:06 a.m., however, the news network had changed its tune and a manhunt suddenly was “underway.”
But like the FBI in the Boston Marathon bombings, we probably should have seen this one coming.
In early April, the Associated Press inexplicably revised its Stylebook, our nation’s most cherished guide to the consistent use of grammar, punctuation and writing style. That which we had known for so long was no longer true: “underway” was now one word in all uses.
It used to be that “under way” was two words “in virtually all uses,” according to my old Stylebook. “The project is under way. The naval maneuvers are under way.” The manhunt, I might add, is under way. Only when used as an adjective before a noun (“the underway flotilla) was one word acceptable.
No more. AP caved. And CNN followed at 8:06 a.m.
I’m a pretty big stickler for AP style, ever since I attended journalism school and became a newspaper reporter. I recognize that our language and AP style evolve. But I’m struggling with this one.
Perhaps I will relent one day. Or I could employ an old journalist’s trick and just write around the problem. But for now, I’m fighting back.
The revolution is under way.
