"Maybe 'fixed' means something different in British-speak"

[laura888]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061800874.html

This was the Post's lame reason for not actively covering last week's Downing Street Memo hearings beyond the Dana Milbank column.

:wtf:

[wryter2000]

1. That's the RW mantra

Fixed doesn't mean what we think it means. Kind of like the definition of is. I guess the case being "thin" doesn't mean what we think it means, either. Or, military action was "inevitable."

[Moochy]

2. Fixed.. you know like in Ohio 2004?

It means "fixed" as in the election results were fixed in Ohio.

[wryter2000]

4. Oh, I got it

It turned out that the people voted the wrong way, so their error needed to be corrected. :sarcasm:

[stepnw1f]

3. Aren't Most Newspaper Sales Down in the last Few Years?

You would think they'd realise why sales or subscriber numbers are down by now. I guess money is the bottom line after all.

[Applan]

5. As a Brit, I can tell you "fixed" means.....

............FIXED!

In this context "Fixed" means manipulated, exaggerated and fabricated. Despite what many in the media might try to tell you, it means exactly the same in English as it does in American.

[BooScout]

9. Thankyou.....

My DH is British and he says it means "Fixed" in the same way you described. It's hilarious how the Republicans feel the need to translate for the rest of us lowly Americans.:eyes:

I just sent the author of that piece a little email:evilgrin:

[Benbow]

11. as another Brit, I second this - and Alasdair Campbell was Tony's

fixer, one could say.

[Moochy]

14. But it's another language!! they dont speak amurrikkan

What with, colour, bonnet and windscreen, why it's practically another language!!

I never met a republican who liked Monty Python.. they tend to not be able to understand the any of the cockney characters. I know my Dad doesnt like it, though he loves Ireland, so I guess it makes sense. :)

[Spazito]

6. Maybe the ombudsman should read his own paper more often...

Here is what Michael Smith , the journalist that broke the stories in Britain,said, as published in the Washington Post:

"Michael Smith: There are number of people asking about fixed and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed and as for the reports that said this was one British official. Pleeeaaassee! This was the head of MI6. How much authority do you want the man to have? He has just been to Washington, he has just talked to George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq. Fixed means the same here as it does there. More leaks? I do hope so and the more Blair and Bush lie to try to get themselves off the hook the more likely it is that we will get more leaks."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/06/14/DI2005061401261.html?nav=rss_world

Edited to correct typo

[Applan]

8. Thanks for posting that.

I hadn't seen that, straight from the horse's mouth.

[warrior1]

7. But

'fix' in the context of 'DSM' means altered or adjusted to the
objective. 'Fixing' facts around a policy then would be forging, lying,
brow beating, fascism. Correct?

[Igel]

10. It has the same range of meanings in British English as it does

in American English.

The 'center of gravity' is a bit different. American English has developed a bit differently from British English, and the older meaning has pretty much vanished from site here; the newer meanings have certainly travelled back to influence British English, and it's likely the semantic shift was beginning at or before the time the colonies were settled.

Originally fasten, secure, attach. Since things that come unfastened are frequently broken it then yielded "repair". A race that isn't going your way can be "fixed", i.e., you can ensure the "correct" outcome. Since data that doesn't say what you wanted to is "broken", you can "repair" it by "correcting" the numbers. Everything seems to to back to either "secure" or "repair".

British tends a bit more to what we Americans would consider the older definition, which still shows up in "get a fix" (military, not narcotics, usage that one), "fixate" and "fixation."

"The facts were being fixed" sounds strongly like "fabricated, made up, altered" to my ears. I'd expect the sentence to continue, "the facts were being fixed to support the policy...".

Given a location, I see the meaning shifted slightly more to "secured" or "fastened", maybe "anchored". I personally can't say "the facts were being fixed around the policy" to mean "fabricated". That was the touchstone for the facts, around which they may have been selected, but it wasn't like there was a unanimity that Iraq had no WMD and was producing none; the CIA, and, no doubt, British intelligence reports yielded a welter of opinions--yes, no, maybe. Only 'yes' were selected. This is willfil manipulation of facts, a chosing of facts to support a given hypothesis or goal. This I expected.

I personally consider "the facts were being fixed" to be playing with potential garden-pathing for political gain. A garden-path sentence is of the sort "put the apple on the mat into the box". If you just quote "put the apple on the mat" it means something rather different from "put the apple on the mat into the box." You can lexically garden-path: "John put the shot on the table" vs. "John put the shot on the table a good 25 feet": in one case, he's a hunter, in the other engaging in track and field. In this case, the syntax is being chosen to fix the meaning of the word "fix" around a certain interpretation.

[undeterred]

12. My dog is "fixed"- is yours?

I "fixed" all the spelling errors in the document.

I'm addicted to narcotics and I need a "fix".

Just brainstorming here.... :shrug:

[Lecky]

13. So lame

My mother was born in England...fix means fix

republicans are such morons