this is a non-issue
Christopher Hitchens just suggested to Brian Lehrer on WNYC that the word "fixed" in the Downing Street Memo sentence the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy
is, in fact, the proper English
usage of "fixed" as stationary or established. He went on to say that the English don't speak out of the sides of their mouths
by using slang such as "the fix is on." OK.
But wait: isn't the use in the DSM sentence, something like, past progressive in passive form? If you don't trust me, trust some other English people [BBC]. The DSM usage is not as an adjective as Hitchens suggests.
I believe the DSM is starting to get a little more TLC in the press.
Posted by: Mason at June 16, 2005 05:26 PMChristopher Hitchens is doing his usual job of sucking up to his latest employer. If we in the UK are told something is "fixed" we understand it to mean repaired or as in this case fixed to look better to those in the houses of commons and lords as well as us commoners. Bush lied, Tony abetted him but who in the US press really cares. Cares for the ten thousand military deaths there or the one hundred thousand Iraqi deaths.
I dont like Galloway, or gorgeous George as he is known here, but truth be told, he should have given everyone in the states pause for thought but, like so many others he has been ignored by most of the press in deference to white house dictates. And thus the slippery slope to totalitarianism glides serenely on down unless your press learns to give people facts not the Bush view on the world thats completely at odds with all considered opinion, i.e. the 180 degree rewrite of the effect of grazing cattle on public land to wildlife and water conservation.
Hitchens may be able to justify his stances by looking at his bank balance, but no one in their right mind should agree with him.