-By Warner Todd Huston
This is just a small example of the shoddy work seen in the Old Media, but the Chicago Tribune uncorked an amusing bit of sloppy writing today in a story about Obama’s White House looking to change the way coffee and water is served there.
After regaling us about new coffee cups Obama’s administration wants to buy, the Bush cups not being sufficient, Sarah Gantz writing for the Trib unleashes this one (my bold):
The cold-drink equivalent of coffee at White House meetings has traditionally been bottled water. But the practice of distributing individual bottles is being phased out for a less wasteful method of water consumption.
“We’re also taking steps to minimize the use of plastic bottles,” Glunz said, by replacing the plastic with pitchers and cups.
Traditionally been bottled water? What “tradition” are we talking about? The practice of one president, and just the last one at that?
Naturally we all remember when Abe Lincoln tried to get rid of the plastic water bottles. The whole establishment was in an uproar. After all, George Washington himself started that tradition of drinking water in plastic bottles.
“Traditionally,” indeed.