You Say Potato, I say Mommar Qaddafi

Libyan leader Mommar Qaddafi (SP????) spoke to the U.N this morning, and the major networks were all there to cover it. And with their coverage came a peculiar bit of editorial decision making. How the heck do you spell his name?

ABC’s Jake Tapper Tweeted that the Library of Congress recognizes 112 different spellings of his name. With 112 different options, it shouldn’t be surprising that all three of the major cable news channels had their own interpretations.

TVNewser has the screengrabs, but for the record, CNN went with Gadhafi, Fox News went with Qaddafi and MSNBC with Khaddafy.

Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer notes that every time the infamous Libyan leader comes stateside, the media seems to have the same spelling problems.

Seeing as this problem seems to have been going on for a couple decades, you would think the media could get their heads together and decide on a unified style. I mean, if they can come together to compete with Nielsen, they can decide between Khaddafy and Qaddafy, right?

Though given the love (or lack thereof) between the personalities and networks involved, that might be a pipe dream.