editorial oversight

[user_user]

Jamie Oliver: Children's book cut over First Nations portrayal

The 400-page fantasy novel is accused of stereotyping Indigenous Australians.

www.bbc.com

Publisher Penguin Random House UK said that a consultation with Indigenous Australians requested by Oliver had not happened due to an "editorial oversight".

(https://www.theguardian.com/food/20...stereotyping-first-nations-australians-ntwnfb

“It was our editorial oversight that this did not happen. It should have and the author asked for one and we apologise unreservedly.” -From a statement issued by PRH UK-)

Question: Why is the phrase "editorial oversight" double-quoted here?

1. as a way of quoting directly
2. to suggest unusualness: the "editorial oversight" was meant in a different way here than the way it is normally meant. (The word oversight has two different meanings (mistake and overseeing). And editorial oversight usually refers to the process of reviewing and monitoring content for accuracy. But here, it is unusually meant as editorial mistake.)

 

[emsr2d2]

1. I don't know what you mean by "double-quoted". Are you referring to the fact that the phrase appears in quotation marks in the paragraph beginning "Publisher Penguin Random House ..." and then again in the quote itself. If so, it's because the writer wanted to make it clear that they were taking a direct quote from the statement, the whole of which was later quoted in full.

2. Yes, "oversight" has two very different meanings. Context makes it clear which one is meant. Here, it clearly means that there was an oversight (they missed something) in the editorial process.
I wouldn't say that it's used "unusually" here. In BrE, my first thought when I see "oversight" is "error/mistake/something missed". We use "oversee" a lot, to mean "monitor/supervise" but the associated noun isn't often used with the same meaning.

To illustrate this point, I can tell you a vaguely amusing story. One of my favourite films is All the President's Men (about Watergate). Throughout the film, a particular committee is mentioned - the "House Oversight Committee". For about twenty years, I was absolutely certain that this committee's job was to spot errors in government. I thought that they literally spent their time writing to departments or politicians to say "Excuse me. We think you've made an oversight there." I don't know why (or even how) I came to the sudden realisation that no, it was a committee whose job was to "oversee" government.