Who will have the last word?

It's hard for a casual observer to know the truth, but here's an entertaining column in the Rocky Mountain News that's about journalists mangling, misinterpreting and otherwise messing up when it comes to writing about language.

Columnist Linda Seebach quotes Geoffrey Pullum, a noted linguist from University of California: "I tell you honestly," Pullum writes, "I wish English had a word meaning 'lazy journalists eagerly repeating hogwash about natural language.' "

The column recommends the blog Language Log and takes a poke at best-selling author Lynn Truss about her book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. But Seebach spends most of her column on Maclean's books columnist Mark Steyn.