NBC: Ha-Ha, Conservatives Reported the Story about the Founder of Burisma Being "Indicted," and He Totally Wasn't
Ukranian Translator: The Press Conference Says a "Sworn Statement of Suspicion" Has Been Issued Against the Burisma Founder

You tell me: Who's doing their best to actually report the news?

Here's the chuckleheads at NBC, who still aren't reporting this story, except as a partisan "Gotcha" about conservative websites.

A misleading claim about the head of the Ukrainian energy company at the heart of the House impeachment inquiry went viral across conservative pockets of social media Wednesday, receiving hundreds of thousands of retweets and shares from some of the president’s most ardent online supporters.

The incorrect story, first disseminated by the finance blog ZeroHedge, claimed that Mykola Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, had been indicted over money laundering related to the Biden family. Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, was previously on Burisma’s board of directors.

In fact, there was no announcement of an indictment.

But Jack Posobiec contacted a Ukranian speaker to translate the press conference that's going on right now (or went on a short time ago), and she said the prosecutor had a said a "signed notice of suspicion" had been issued.

Is that the same as an indictment?

I don't know, but I do know something about this translation problem, I think.

When I translate French stories, I almost always translate the French mis en garde as "indicted."

Does it mean "indicted"? No, it does not. The French do not follow Anglo-American law, of course, and they don't have what we'd call "indictments."

Nevertheless, mis en garde is a major investigatory step. It literally means "Put on guard/put on caution/put on notice," or something like that.

Or, as Paul Anka might say: "You're all on fuckin' notice."

Cops may have informal suspicions in a criminal case, but mis en garde is a formal step, requiring, I believe, a presentation of proof before a magistrate.

I imagine it's something like a Warrant to Open an Official Investigation or something else we don't quite have in the Anglo-American system.

But when I'm translating quickly from the French, I assume readers do not want a diversion about what mis en garde means. So I have translated it as what I take to be roughly analogous: "Indicted."

It's a major step in a prosecution. It's not an arrest -- I know the word for that -- but it is official notice that you are now under official scrutiny.

Anyway, I don't know if Ukraine's legal system. But I would imagine it fails to track perfectly with the American system, and that therefore there will be terms of art which are untranslatable.

A "signed notice of suspicion of a crime" sound a lot like "mis en garde" to me, and I've always (roughly, imperfectly) translated mis en garde as "indicted."

Maybe I'll stop that now and start saying "officially notified to be on caution of being suspected of a crime." A bit cumbersome, but more accurate.

But either way, I don't see this as the cause for juvenile cheering and backclapping that the 27 year old media ignoramuses -- who were said by their strong ally (mind-controller) Ben Rhoades to "literally know nothing" -- that NBC is engaging in.

I don't know the Ukranian language or Ukranian criminal process. I don't know what a signed suspicion of crime is. I don't know if this is a major step or a more routine one.

But here's the thing:

I'm pretty damn sure the 27 year old ignoramuses who literally know nothing don't know either, and furthermore, they don't even know what they don't know.

They almost surely do not know that foreign countries have, get this, foreign systems of criminal process and that there will be legal terms of art that simply do not translate to English.

The French "pomme" translates as "apple." We have apples in America. That translates well because we have the same thing here; we just use another word.

But what happens when there's a concept in another country which we don't have in America? How do you translate that?

BTW: I personally never said "indicted" because I couldn't find what I thought to be an authoritative source for it. And also, because I do know that the very term "indicted" may not travel well to countries outside the Anglo-American tradition.

So I'm not covering my own ass here -- I avoided this entirely.

But I am curious to see who turns out to be closer to right: rando conservative blogs, or Rape Emporium and part-time propaganda organ NBC.

I've got my suspicions -- let's just say that much.

BTW, if anyone does know what mis en garde means, precisely, do please let me know. It bothers me!

Meanwhile, Noted Russia Expert and Leftwing Lunatic Whose Cranial Humors Are Completely Unbalanced to Fuck-Hell Julia Ioffe accuses the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of being a Russian front, because... um, of a punctuation glitch.

OUT: Russian contacts

IN: Russian punctuation

I'll put up a Democrat debate thread later, but I won't be watching. I'm done for the day.

Ukranian Translator: The Press Conference Says a "Sworn Statement of Suspicion" Has Been Issued Against the Burisma Founder&bodytext=You tell me: Who's doing their best to actually report the news? Here's the chuckleheads at NBC, who still aren't reporting this story, except as a partisan "Gotcha" about conservative websites. A misleading claim about the head of the Ukrainian...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace of Spades at 07:50 PM

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