Angry in the Great White North

CityNews staff wrote this story on a potential election coming, and included this quote from Buzz Hargrove:

However, the Liberal team got a big boost Monday, when a union leader - widely believed to be an NDP shoe-in - threw his support behind the Liberals.

"Every new leader faces this challenge of everybody wondering and looking for some miracle so to speak and it never happens, but once they get into an election campaign they start to show what their metal really is about," Buzz Hargrove allowed.

It is not how much iron is in Stephen Harper or aluminum in Stephane Dion.

It is about how much mettle each leader shows, not how much metal.

Sheesh.

Now the two words are related, but the words are different (mettle refers to strength of spirit) and aren't interchangeable.

I know it's seems like a little thing, but the printed media (whether hardcopy or online) is the means by which the rich vocabulary of English is preserved and carried forward.

The popular media has a special role in keeping the vocabulary in common use.

When I see mistakes like that happen, it frustrates me.  Buzz Hargrove clearly has a way with words, and it is lost in the translation from English to News-English.