Oops! US State Department misspells name of Syria’s president; Correction: More than one way to spell it

http://twitter.com/#!/RichardGrenell/status/288053924450140160

Grenell is right:

https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/288044347868463105

https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/288044658951602176

https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/288045021360422912

https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/288045571615379458

https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/288046307740876802

https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/288046678039212033

To some it may seem nitpicky. We all make spelling mistakes, after all.

But Grennell’s point about double standards is spot on:

https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/288060651555917824

If you don’t believe him, you must be too young to remember this:

A minor slip-up by Vice President Dan Quayle hatched a frenzy and a long-running joke. Quayle led a spelling bee for sixth-grade students while visiting an elementary school in New Jersey in 1992. Working from an inaccurate flash card prepared by a teacher, he corrected William Figueroa, 12, when the child spelled “potato” on the blackboard – making the boy add an unnecessary “e” at the word’s end.

Quayle would never hear the end of it. The media assault for this goof was truly relentless.

* * *

Correction: While the “Asad” spelling is unconventional in the US, it has been used by others and has been used by the U.S. Department of State for many years.  We’re no experts, but we now think there is more than one way to spell the name. We believe our original post was in error. We apologize.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2013/01/06/oops-us-state-department-misspells-name-of-syrias-president/