Dangling modifiers go wild

With the disappearance of copy editors, it’s a wild time out in media-land for dangling modifiers. Once upon a time, in the good old days of letterpress, reporters could be saved by linotype operators who knew English grammar. Alas, they are long gone, and we get AP stories like this one, on Jan. 28, 2021:

“WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi intensified pressure Thursday on House Republican leaders for their handling of a controversial GOP freshman, denouncing them for placing a lawmaker who Pelosi says has ‘mocked the killing of little children’ on the chamber’s education committee.”

Well, I can uderstand Speaker Pelosi. After all, it’s not very nice to kill little children on a House committee. Not even big children.

File under the classic dangler: Throw the horse over the fence some hay.