We just got an e-mail from Verizon Wireless asking us to pass along this message regarding that McCain cellphone tower story. Turns out it has a problem with the Washington Post’s reportage.
The Washington Post story regarding Verizon providing a cell tower to the McCain Ranch is wrong. Verizon received a request from Mrs. McCain, but declined. Subsequent to that, the Secret Service made a legitimate request for a temporary tower for its work and Verizon complied as is required by our contract with the agency. The Secret Service request, made on May 28, specifically said it needed the service urgently and requested that Verizon “explore every possible means of providing an alternative cellular or data communications source in the referenced area and provide any short term implementation of any type as a solution in the interim.”
Now, who do you believe, Verizon Wireless or the Washington Post? I doubt the Post was all, “Let’s make something up!” In any event, apparently the two parties are working toward a clarification/correction of the original story, so if you sit tight there may well be a definitive answer to all of this. We look forward to that day.
Also, and completely unrelated to anything of substance, note the double space after each sentence in the above quote. Isn’t that an old newspaper convention or something?
If the Secret Service made the request, then it’s completely legitimate in my mind. We can’t have another Camp David incident (you know the one I’m talking about, where Leo McGarry collapsed). That was a real national tragedy. And even more important if you think about that happening to McCain and what the consequences would be vis a vis the vee pee.
…wait, that wasn’t real life? I think I was living in a West Wing Alternate Reality there for a few years.
I believe Verizon. They have nothing to gain by lying.
Journalists on the other hand…
I also believe Verizon. And I have always done the double space at the end of each sentence. Just the way some people were taught to write I guess.
I never noticed this, but it looks like the site adjusts the spaces on its own. Maybe more people do this than I thought?
“I doubt the Post was all, “Let’s make something up!””
You don’t know the media very well. Please visit newsbusters.org.
from the MLA site (http://www.mla.org/style_faq3):
How many spaces should I leave after a period or other concluding mark of punctuation?
Publications in the United States today usually have the same spacing after a punctuation mark as between words on the same line. Since word processors make available the same fonts used by typesetters for printed works, many writers, influenced by the look of typeset publications, now leave only one space after a concluding punctuation mark. In addition, most publishers’ guidelines for preparing a manuscript on disk ask authors to type only the spaces that are to appear in print.
Because it is increasingly common for papers and manuscripts to be prepared with a single space after all punctuation marks, this spacing is shown in the examples in the MLA Handbook and the MLA Style Manual. As a practical matter, however, there is nothing wrong with using two spaces after concluding punctuation marks unless an instructor or editor requests that you do otherwise.
Hmmm… I always thought double spacing after every sentence was the only correct way to type. I actually tried to write this with single spaces after the period and my head almost exploded. I think I learned it back in high school from Mavis Beacon.
Maybe it’s a generational thing? I’m 22 and was never taught the double space thing. I mean, I knew it existed, sure, but never actually had to do it. Youngsters–how do they teach it nowadays?
Let’s get to the bottom of this.
I’m 24, and its always how I was taught to type as well… Maybe regional?
Guilty. Jeffrey Nelson here, the Verizon spokesguy. My typing, my double space after a period-ing.
JNels