Who's That

It seems to be a trend that has reared its ugly head on Fox News and NPR alike, so it can’t be blamed on America’s great political divide. I don’t know where it came from or whether the cat dragged it in, but I do know that hearing this particular verbal faux pas is as grating to me as a knife being handle-dragged, blade down and screeching through a metal sharpener.

I’m talking about the propensity of reporters and pundits these days to use “that” when I think they should use “who.” I’ve always believed you should use who when you refer to people and that when you refer to objects. Just the other day, I heard someone on a network who shall remain nameless casually say this: “The people that are responsible for this are never around to accept blame.” Horrors. Referring to people as “that” and not “who” seems to relegate them to having the humanity of a cold, damp concrete wall.

But as it usually happens, just when I find another reason to preen and glow over being so indisputably right, someone comes along to broom-slap me off my pedestal. Today that someone was my idol Grammar Girl. She quotes this from the American Heritage Dictionary:

            “It is entirely acceptable to write either the man that wanted to talk to you, or the man who   wanted to talk to you.”

Apparently, even Chaucer flagrantly (at least in my book) used "that" when referring to people. But even though I may stand corrected, that doesn’t mean I still won’t secretly smile whenever someone uses “who” the way I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh.