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September 10, 2006
Why do they say "destroy"?
Why do journalists refer to wildfires as having "destroyed" an area? The newsreaders on ABC just told of a wildfire near my neck of the woods "destroying" more than 13,000 acres.
Fires can destroy structures -- homes, schools, Zankou Chicken restaurants (heaven forbid!) -- but they don't destroy the land itself. The plants burn, but they grow back. In fact, fires help fertilize the soil, and some plants require the high heat of brushfires to germinate.
Wildfires damage 13,000 acres of brush, scrub and trees; they kill wildlife, but they most assuredly do not, in and of themselves, "destroy."
Precision in language is everything if news is to mean anything.
Posted by Mike Lief at September 10, 2006 11:08 PM
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