Bill Graham
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Post by Collin Hansen
Here's something unusual, from The New York Times: "[McCain] met Sunday with one of the country’s best-known evangelicals, Bill Graham, and his son, Franklin, for what was described as an 'excellent conversation' but secured no endorsement."
Has anyone ever referred to Billy Graham as Bill? Maybe the aged evangelist let Sen. McCain know that he had finally outgrown the 'y.' The Los Angeles Times reports that McCain said, "Bill Graham recalled that during the Vietnam War when I was in prison, he visited my parents in Hawaii twice and he and my mother and father prayed together for me, and I expressed my appreciation for that a long time ago.…I am very grateful for the time they spent with me."
Every other site I've seen, however, quotes McCain calling him Billy. Are there really journalists out there who apparently haven't heard of Billy Graham?
Here's something unusual, from The New York Times: "[McCain] met Sunday with one of the country’s best-known evangelicals, Bill Graham, and his son, Franklin, for what was described as an 'excellent conversation' but secured no endorsement."
Has anyone ever referred to Billy Graham as Bill? Maybe the aged evangelist let Sen. McCain know that he had finally outgrown the 'y.' The Los Angeles Times reports that McCain said, "Bill Graham recalled that during the Vietnam War when I was in prison, he visited my parents in Hawaii twice and he and my mother and father prayed together for me, and I expressed my appreciation for that a long time ago.…I am very grateful for the time they spent with me."
Every other site I've seen, however, quotes McCain calling him Billy. Are there really journalists out there who apparently haven't heard of Billy Graham?
posted by Collin Hansen at Wednesday, July 02, 2008
4 Comments:
Didn't he used to put on really cool concerts at the Fillmore?
Collin,
I think you're probably right in assuming that you caught a journalist getting the facts wrong (namely, Bill instead of Billy). But, having worked for The Man for six years, I can tell you that his close friends do call him "Bill" (not "Billy"). For instance, I've heard Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea both call him "Bill."
So it wouldn't necessarily be "odd" or "wrong" for McCain to have called him "Bill," but it would imply a certain closeness in relationship that I doubt Graham and McCain actually have.
It could also just be a typo, in which you'd have to blame the copy editor, not the reporter/writer. ;-)
DJP: Comment of the day. Nice.
More likely, McCain say "Bill" and only one paper kept it that way. Newspaper editors and reporters regularly modify what people say, often in the interest of not allowing people they quote to look bad for using bad grammar or the wrong name. I think it's a violation of journalistic ethics, but it's extremely common. They go much further than that, too. I was quoted out of context to make a point that was the opposite of my own point, and my words were changed from reluctantly conceding that something is technically true to emphasizing it as if it's the more important thing.
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