Friday, August 20, 2010

Flack vs. Flak: White House Wordplay


Ken, Andy, and Sheila all pointed out this typo on NPR.org yesterday. Thanks, guys!

Where does NPR go wrong? It confuses the homophones "flack" and "flak." The headline is supposed to mean that a White House spokesperson said that President Obama was "obviously a Christian."

Definitions: 
  • flack (n.) - Press agent; spokesperson
  • flak (n.) - Aircraft artillery; criticism

Correction: Obama 'Obviously A Christian': White House Flack

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the correction--but it should also have put the colon outside the parentheses:

    Obama 'Obviously A Christian': White House Flack

    (I won't get into the issue of whether the quotation marks should actually be double ones.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. RuthG: You are absolutely right. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
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