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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Economize it
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1
2016/01/13 - 2:10pm

This sentence is reported as part of Al Jazeera America's comment on its decision to shut down:

The decision that has been made is in no way because AJAM has done anything but a great job.

The idea is clear enough, but words-wise something seems missing,  like when things get dropped or compressed when you speak too fast.  

Or do you think that sentence is  totally  good   for what it's meant to say?  A way to economize by merging several sentences into one?   Or else maybe a faint clue of why AJAM is shutting down? (joke)

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
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2
2016/01/13 - 4:54pm

Let me try to be at least as economical but also clearer: The AJAM did a great job and the decision is independent of that fact.

I think the problem with the sentence is that it essentially have double negatives/opposite contrasts: "no" and "but". The mind has to do a double flip.

Guest
3
2016/01/13 - 10:19pm

Well that sounds smoother,  Emmett,  but still not quite proof against unintended interpretations if one chooses to go for pranks.   To me both your sentence and theirs  leave plenty of rooms for the interpretation that   great jobs are normally expected to lead to painful decisions.

They apparently wanted to say that if you think they shut down because of bad performances, then you are wrong, because in fact their performances are all good.

deaconB
744 Posts
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4
2016/01/14 - 12:53am

The decision that has been made is in no way because AJAM has done anything but a great job.

Lies often come off sounding wrong. Obviously SOMEBODY did a bad job.

I thgought at one time that I'd like to add AJAM to our DirecTV, but it was as much as HBO as I recall, and while it would be interesting to hear news processed through a different filter than American TV, I didn't want to have the FBI trying to catch me as a enemy sympathizer.  I suspect enough others had similar thoughts, in which case the blame lies with the guys who thought it would be profitable tried to sell AJ to Americans. 

But they didn't shut down for no reason at all.  Somebody goofed, and I'm pretty sure he has been informed in no uncertain terms.  They are trying to help their newsmen get new jobs because it cuts their costs if everybody finds a replacement job quickly.  And also because it's the right thing to do, although that is fairly uncommon in the corporate world.

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