grammar Ford

24 Oct 2006

Weird ellipses in a quote of Ford from this Tennessean article:

“I was there,” the Memphis Democrat said. “I like football, and I like girls. I don’t have … no apologies for that.”

WMCTV quotes him as:

“I was there,” he said. “I like football, and I like girls. I have no apologies for that.”

So which is it? Bad grammar or good grammar?

UPDATE:

After watching this video, it’s clear he just corrected himself because he realized he was about to say “I don’t have any apologies”, which is a little more awkward than “I have no apologies”. I blame the Tennesseean for using ellipses to reflect his change mid-stream but including both negatives, but as Tari said in the comments, it’s difficult to deal with while still providing a verbatim transcription of his quote.

I won’t … not stay on top of this breaking political scandal as the developments .. uh, develop.