Eugene Volokh notes this misleading headline from ABC News: “Maxine Waters Refutes Ethics Charges.”  ABC does not mean “refutes” — which presupposes that the charges against Waters are false — but merely “denies.”  As written, the headline conveys the tendentious message that not only did Waters rebut the allegations against her but that she did so successfully. Was … Continue reading Conservatives and Presuppositional Verbs: A Pre-emptive Attack