When we're not responding to e-mails about cable descrambler kits and choice telecommuting opportunities, Chicken-Fried News gets an occasional electronic correspondence from our readers. (We've found they're usually smarter than us.)
The latest came from University of Oklahoma student Vinay Joseph regarding a Jan. 14 CFN about a certain spiritual and political leader from India. It seems Irishman Dermot Butterly was so inspired by Gandhi that he's trekking across the United States, including a lil' hike through Oklahoma.
In his e-mail, Joseph took CFN to task.
"The famous Indian peace activist as he is known around the world is pronounced 'Gandhi' and NOT 'Ghandi,'" he wrote. "Also, the Web site featuring Mr. Dermot Butterly is spelled www.gandhipeace.com and NOT www.ghandipeace.com.
"I believe this is an honest mistake. However, I hope the editors would be a little more careful and cautious in the future about checking spelling errors, specially when they are talking about world famous personalities."
Yup. CFN not only misspelled in the headline, we also butchered the beloved pacifist's name a couple more times and even screwed up the Irishman's Web site address. Bad CFN! Bad!
While double-checking the Web site, Bucky the intern did some newfangled googling and found we're not alone. Anupam Chander, a professor of law at the University of California, Davis, wrote about being shocked that The New York Times jumbled Gandhi's name in a 2005 editorial.
"I confess to being surprised that the Times editorial that I read "¦ misspelled Gandhi's name," Chander wrote on his blog.
"What does this reveal about how much the Times' senior-most editors know about the world? When the most important figure in the last century " who led the world to freedom long before Bush embraced it for 'brown people' " has his name misspelled by the supposed American newspaper of record, what does it say about how much we care about the world?"
At least it's not lonely at the bottom.
