Three Cheers: Real-Life Examples of Good Writing No. 1

In a July 2009 article in the U.K.'s News of the World(http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/391017/Michael-Jacksons-video-nasty.html), James Desborough correctly uses a word that has long been on the verbal endangered-species list.

Desborough is describing a video tape from 1996 in which Michael Jackson answers (and doesn't answer) questions from lawyers about whether he had sexual relations with underaged males. Desborough writes: "As the hearing drew to a close Jackson seems totally uninterested in the proceedings, grinning at his lawyers' doodles on notepads and saying: 'That's good.'"

Most writers nowadays would've written "seems totally disinterested in the proceedings...."

Uninterested is the correct word in this case because it simply means "not interested." Disinterested, on the other hand, means "not having an interest in the outcome"--in other words, "objective" or "unbiased."

Alas, Desborough does mix his verb tenses. After having written "As the hearing drew [past] to a close," he should've written "Jackson seemed [not seems] totally uninterested...."

But, for his use of uninterested, we gladly pop the cork.

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