Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) wrote on 2003-11-19:

...

There will be no questions and answers.

To a non native speaker, this phrase seems to imply a scary level of control over the media people. "There will be no questions. Dissenters will be shot on the spot."

Remember, the Government isn't speaking English, they're speaking Bureauspeak,which is a more verbose version of Newspeak, so most of us here are non-native speakers. There'll be lots of *questions*, like "Who's getting baked?" and "When can we impeach the Vegetable?", and "Oh, my, what absurdly offensive thing will they come up with this time?". On the other hand, the announcement only says that the _media_ need to have Government-Issued ID and Official Press Passes and come in the Embedded Servants' Entrance. Wear your overalls and bring a box of pumpkins and cabbage and you can walk on in the front door with the other farmers. Probably have to leave your pitchfork behind, because even the Bush League gets nervous around peasants with pitchforks, but no problem if you've got your cell-phone/camera/recorder. Too bad it's past tomato season on the East Coast.... Farmer Bill -- Bill Stewart bill.stewart@pobox.com