• Optional@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    True, but it’s also used to distance the article (“the authority”) from the truth of the word or set of words. The wire service then doesn’t have to commit to (in this case) saying people referenced in the story are replacing religion with ideologies.

    Scare quotes.

    The ultra conservative Catholics (and “evangelicals” which is what we used to call “tv preachers” but is now so mainstream they have their own Protestant designation,) HAVE replaced faith with ideology. But even if that’s debatable, the word ideology is perfectly acceptable - the quotes are not just superfluous, they’re there to limit the impact of the statement. The statement already said it’s a quote, it already said Who said it, it went further by using the word “accused” instead of “said” (now there’s a word choice - is that how attribution works? No. No it is not.), and then put scare quotes on “ideologies”.

    Take out “accused”, put the whole quote in, and I have no problem with it. They butchered it in this way for a reason, and that reason has little to do with the accepted guide for attribution.