Word: item
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Government-run television reported the rally as the top item on the evening news...
...table we were sitting at returned something less than an "overwhelming verdict" of "kudos to HDS." We found the vegetarian hamburger to be, frankly, vile. We were amazed at HDS' lame attempt to improvise a new menu item. We compared it unfavorably to other emetics frequently served in our dining halls, such as broccoli-cheese pasta and vegetable stromboli. If Mr. Berger turns out to be partial to these dishes too, we would not dream of denying him the right to his opinion. We would, however, deny him the right to speak for the general undergraduate population, which we believe...
That exploratory phone call, of course, is no guarantee of accuracy. New York magazine inquired whether I had reviewed a manuscript for possible serialization in TIME. Yes, I had; no, we wouldn't. But the item relating this routine transaction attributed a direct quote to me ostensibly delivered to "colleagues." The remark, never uttered, was not checked either with me or with the editor to whom I had reported. Later, the New York Times Book Review picked up the unfounded quote. The news section of the same Sunday edition carried an editors' note pointing out that the original gossip-page...
...soon as time permits.) But there are enough unalloyed clinkers in this little collection to raise disturbing questions. If Washingtonian didn't get my pay right, how many other numbers in that story were wrong? If the New York Times -- ostensibly the newspaper of record -- adopts a dubious item from a gossip column, how many other colorful anecdotes are published without being checked for accuracy...
...report, I confessed, made no mention of setting. The Harvard man had made his point--but he was already onto another item...