GalacticCactus Forum

Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: Porter on December 08, 2004, 07:24:53 AM

Title: the panel recommends
Post by: Porter on December 08, 2004, 07:24:53 AM

I was listening to NPR talk about the congresionally mandated panel to look into the repeated sexual assaults that have taken place at the Air Force Academy over the years.

The quote, as best as I can remember it:

"The panel recommended no disiplinary action [for the administrators].

Would you interpret this to mean:

a) The panel recommended that they be given no disciplinary action
or
b) The panel did not recommend any disciplinary action

I'm not asking what they really recommended (if I really cared, I could google it).  

As for myself, the more I think about it, the more elusive the meaning is.

Title: the panel recommends
Post by: Icarus on December 08, 2004, 07:37:24 AM

I would parse it as B. (Though I've often seen it used as A.)

Title: the panel recommends
Post by: Trisha on December 08, 2004, 08:06:57 AM

I would read it as spin, unless they used a quote, and then I would suspect it was taken out of context.  But I really hate the news media.

I read it as the reporter wants to make it look like the panel implicitly approved of the sexual abuse.

Title: the panel recommends
Post by: Uchiha Itachi on December 08, 2004, 05:03:12 PM

I second Trisha.

Title: the panel recommends
Post by: Jonathon on December 08, 2004, 05:25:31 PM

I think I'd read it as a, but it really does seem ambiguous.