National Public Radio (www.npr.org) can normally be relied upon for thoughtful opinions - even if you don't agree with then - and in depth reporting. When NPR's news programs detour into trivia, the reports are often clever and entertaining.
Yesterday, however, much was made of the fact that, at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday, the USA "beat its own record for Gold Medals in a single day". It is one thing to care about the total number of medals won during the Games and, perhaps, the number of medals won 'yesterday', but who cares about a meaningless record such as the number of medals won in a single day.
One of George Orwell's warnings is applicable:
"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."
This report, although minor, is yet another example of the corruption of language leading to foolish and worthless thought. Incidentally, adding to the zero (negative?) information value of the report, only four Gold Medals will be awarded today so there is no possibility that the USA can again beat its own meaningless record.
NPR can, and should do better!
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