Punctuating Bernie

At the end of Bernie Madoff's plea for leniency Monday morning, he turned to his victims and said, "I'm sorry, I know that doesn't help you."

Or at least that's how I wrote it down in my notebook. The New York Times originally posted it as: "I'm sorry. I know that doesn't help you."

The punctuation changes the meaning quite a bit. If it's a comma, then it sounds as though Bernie is apologizing for how useless his preceding mea culpa was to his victims. He can never say enough, but he tried. If it's a period, then he's apologizing for the Ponzi scheme and then in a revelatory moment saying that he knows that a simple "I'm sorry" isn't good enough.

Our copy desk agreed with the Times and reasonably changed my piece to include a period. But then we saw CNBC run an on-air graphic that had the quote with a comma, calling the whole thing into question again.

Eventually, both the Times and TBM changed the punctuation. NYT's version of the story now hedges on the punctuation question and reads, " 'I’m sorry,' he told them. 'I know that doesn’t help you.' " TBM found a different, third way—the em dash. The story now reads: "I'm sorry—I know that doesn't help you." A punctuation mark—and a criminal—open to interpretation for all.

Click here to read TBM's dispatch from inside the courtroom.