singular-plural disagreement, redundancy

Tom Brokaw made multiple linguistic mistakes on this morning’s Meet the Press. His opening statement was problematic. He said, “Our issues this Sunday: the American financial system in deep crisis.”

Many of us dramatize speech. We want people to listen closely. We want to sound as intense as possible. And, to be sure, this week’s financial markets were intense. But some words do not need intensification; by definition, they do not allow for intensification. Crisis is one of those words. It definitions include the phrases “critical phase” and “crucial time.” Crisis is a dramatic word; it can and should hold its own. To describe a “deep crisis” is redundant.

Brokaw made a grammatical mistake in his second question to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. He said, “Well, let’s talk first of all about how this happened. Is it as a result of speed and the complexity of these instruments now, and the fact that no one really has their hand on the instruments that they’re selling, they just pass them along?”

No one is singular, as you can hear in the word “one.” Brokaw paired it with the correct verb, has, but he proceeded to use plural pronouns, “their hands on the instruments that they’re selling.” This doesn’t work, grammatically.

Meet the Press, Meet the Guard.