Wow, you’d think that with all the super smart people who work at CNN, you’d find correct copy.
Don’t bet the house.
Here are just a couple of things from just one article:
1) His campaign staffers set up a politically-active nonprofit…
Gosh, I thought everyone knows the rule that you never hyphenate an -ly adverb. Guess not.
2) His reporting lives under the brand, “The Point with Chris Cillizza,” and includes a nightly newsletter and weekday Amazon Echo and Google Home flash briefings.
Lemme ask you a question: Is the title of this guy’s program parenthetical information? In other words, can you take out the material inside the commas and still have a sentence that makes sense?
No, no you can’t. The name of this guy’s program is essential to the meaning of the sentence, so it can’t be removed. This is correct:
His reporting lives under the brand “The Point with Chris Cillizza,” and includes a nightly newsletter and weekday Amazon Echo and Google Home flash briefings.
3) Chris Cillizza is a CNN Politics Reporter and Editor-at-Large, covering national politics including the White House, Congress and every district they represent.
Who, pray, is “they” in this sentence? It’s got to be “Congress,” but, last time I looked, “Congress” is a collective noun, a singular noun. I’d suggest “members of Congress,” and then everything is hunky-dory.
And, while I’m at it, stick a comma after “politics.” There. Better.
4) and 5)
“Roll Call” (whatever that is) is a corporate entity, which refers to a group of people but is treated as a singular noun, just like any corporation you’d care to name. A corporation is an “it,” so that “their White House correspondent” is incorrect. And, this is yet another case of someone not knowing rules about commas. I vote for commas to precede “where” in each of the following sentences:
Prior to The Washington Post, Cillizza reported on campaign politics for Roll Call where he served as their White House Correspondent. He also previously reported for The Cook Political Report where he covered gubernatorial and House races.
I’d also like to know why The Washington Post is not in italics.
Don’t get me wrong. I love CNN. It’s a shame its editorial standards aren’t higher.
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