May 02, 2006

At least I hope he's not acting alone

I have somewhat more than a passing interest in Bolivia; this story in today's NYT came with a linguistically interesting headline:

Bolivian Nationalizes the Oil and Gas Sector

While it's true that a single Bolivian -- President Evo Morales -- is ultimately responsible for the nationalization of the oil and gas sector, I don't think I've ever seen a case like this where the president is not referred to by title (e.g., President Morales, Bolivian President, etc.) or metonymically in some way (e.g., Morales Administration, Bolivian Government, Bolivia, etc. -- compare the title of this other NYT article). This could just be a very bad typo, but the effect is underhandedly disparaging of this highly controversial decision (which fulfills an important campaign promise, one of several that have been of concern to the international community), and I do wonder if it was somehow intentional.

[ Comments? ]

Posted by Eric Bakovic at May 2, 2006 12:35 AM