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Updated Sept. 11, 2026 9:49 am ET is less than 30 minutes ago
Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
41–50 of 672 posts
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#42Why all the quotation marks in the article? It's not like they interviewed toddlers that said funny things.
When I moved from the US to the UK, the use of quotation marks in news headlines was something that confused me. In the US, these would be "scare quote", with the quotation marks basically standing in for the words "so-called". In the UK, that is NOT their meaning. The quotation marks mean "we are not ourselves in a position to verify this, but it is the words that a source has told us". Very different meaning -- and…
It’s not so much ‘we are not in a position to verify’ as the fact that the person who said the thing, and what they said, is itself newsworthy.
If you’re reporting that “Government sources say Houthis have ‘taken control’ of an island” then the fact that government sources used the words ‘taken control’ is itself interesting.
The headlines “Russia ‘will be defeated’ in Ukraine says Zelensky”, “Russia ‘will be defeated’ in Ukraine says Putin”, and “Russia ‘will be defeated’ in Ukraine says Taylor Swift” all tell of vastly different news events.
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#43[flagged]
Because https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49658682 wasn't posted until 8 minutes after your comment.
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#44Why all the quotation marks in the article? It's not like they interviewed toddlers that said funny things.
It’s in quotation marks because it’s a quotation. The BBC have not independently verified that the Houthis have taken control of the island, they are reporting what a government source has said.
They need to start doing this when other "regimes" make wild claims.
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#45[flagged]
The report was discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647300
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, this is actual journalism. When it's from a direct single source, it's a quote, not an agreed upon fact.
I would agree if they were actually quoting someone or if it was a more substantial quote. In this case, it appears to be an anonymous source.
From the text: "a government source says", "In a statement, the Houthis say", "The group also claims...", "They group's military spokesman claims...".
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Will this bring oil prices down in Europe ... This will not help Asia This hurts Europe more than Asia. The UK, France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, and others are similarly opposed to the Houthis having conducted airstrikes on the Houthis (eg. 2025) as well as helping target them directly or indirectly. And a large portion of global shipping is owned by Greek conglomerates - a country that is a close ally of Israe…
Yeah the EU leadership has been really shortsighted on these past decades (especially since the 10s), especially in their strategic energy and industrial sectors. Be it the Ukranian conflict, the ME crisis, the NA wars and instabilities, etc. The EU is the one that geopolitically speaking lost the most. Unless they're full puppets for foreign interests, I simply do not understand how they could leave foreign actors t…
I guess you only need maybe 20% of them to be puppets to mess around. It’s a lot easier to damage than to build.
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Will this bring oil prices down in Europe ... This will not help Asia This hurts Europe more than Asia. The UK, France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, and others are similarly opposed to the Houthis having conducted airstrikes on the Houthis (eg. 2025) as well as helping target them directly or indirectly. And a large portion of global shipping is owned by Greek conglomerates - a country that is a close ally of Israe…
Yeah the EU leadership has been really shortsighted on these past decades (especially since the 10s), especially in their strategic energy and industrial sectors. Be it the Ukranian conflict, the ME crisis, the NA wars and instabilities, etc. The EU is the one that geopolitically speaking lost the most. Unless they're full puppets for foreign interests, I simply do not understand how they could leave foreign actors t…
The issue was 1990s-2000s Germany argued it was in Europe's best interest to integrate Russia into the European fabric, but 1990s-2000s France+UK+Italy argued it was in Europe's best interest to integrate the Mediterranean into the European fabric.
When the UK left the EU and France+Italy were in the midst of their economic doldrums due to the Eurozone crisis, this left the hard power states within the EU comparatively weakened.
But the collapse of Minsk II and the ongoing war in the Middle East led to a cascading crisis for a unified Europe.
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#49Why all the quotation marks in the article? It's not like they interviewed toddlers that said funny things.
It's a garbage habit that they've all fallen into. The quotes will fall away when future stories refer back to this story.
That single quoted phrase was set in the context of other words, and that context defined its meaning. We know this to an extent that almost no one could have imagined since LLMs have become a huge part of the world.
My favorite example of this is how no article in Britain during Corbyn's leadership of the labor party would ever quote an entire sentence that he had said. Thousands of articles, and the quotes were all fragmentary phrases and lone words framed in editorial.
edit: Brits and the BBC especially do this more than most, likely because of their bizarre libel laws (that were once even worse than they are now.)
Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
#50Why all the quotation marks in the article? It's not like they interviewed toddlers that said funny things.
It's because they been taken to court for mindlessly parroting shit they hear, but instead of actually verifying the truth of the claim (ya know, the entire purpose of a journalist) they just put it in quotes as some kind of "buyer beware" disclaimer
Journalism is just as much reporting what different influential people say, whether the underlying statement is true or not.
> actually verifying the truth
That's the job of the reader, not the journalist. Unless you're living under oppression. So you have misunderstood the purpose of reporting.