Journalistic oops?
Taken from this WTOP article:
The National Weather Service says people shouldn't be concerned about helping a lightning strike victim because the charge will not affect them.
OK, I know that this really means that the helper should not be concerned for the helper's own safety, because the lightning's charge won't be transferred from the victim to the helper. However, with current English usage, in which the third-person plural pronoun (they/them/their) is sometimes used as a gender-neutral version of the third-person singular, the above statement could be read as saying that a helper should not worry about a lightning victim because the lightning will not affect the victim. So if you see somebody get hit by lightning, don't worry, they'll be fine.
The article with the quote
The National Weather Service says people shouldn't be concerned about helping a lightning strike victim because the charge will not affect them.
OK, I know that this really means that the helper should not be concerned for the helper's own safety, because the lightning's charge won't be transferred from the victim to the helper. However, with current English usage, in which the third-person plural pronoun (they/them/their) is sometimes used as a gender-neutral version of the third-person singular, the above statement could be read as saying that a helper should not worry about a lightning victim because the lightning will not affect the victim. So if you see somebody get hit by lightning, don't worry, they'll be fine.
The article with the quote
