Friday, March 16, 2007

Spelling Tales

If a suicide bomber is to go down in history it's helpful if the media can agree on how to spell his name. Here's the tale of one 7/7 bomber and the many spellings as used in the Guardian:

mohammed siddique khan = 12 hits (latest 09/01/07)
mohammad siddique khan = 3 hits (07/07/07)
mohammad sidique khan = 121 hits (16/12/06)
mohammed sidique khan = 33 hits (09/02/07)

The Official Intelligence and Security Committee Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005 (published) May 2006, has its version of the name as

mohammed siddeque khan

And hits in the Guardian for this variation = 0

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