Reader question:

Please explain “firing line” in the following:

Europe is worried about the increase of obesity in children over the last years. The fast food industry is in the firing line, especially due to the tactics they employ in the advertising aimed at children.

My comments:

The fast food industry uses all sorts of tricks in their advertisements to lure children to their junk.

Food, I mean.

And in Europe, when people begin to worry about the increase of obesity in children, the fast food industry naturally becomes the target for criticism.

That’s why the fast food industry is said be “in the firing line”, where it’s exposed to enemy gunfire – or metaphorically verbal attack (criticism) from opponents.

“Firing line” is originally a military term. In the past, when the primary weaponry was rifles, soldiers marched in what is called formations of neatly arranged rows.

Soldiers walking in the first or front row were in the firing line. That is, when it was time to open fire at the enemy, soldiers in the front raised their rifles and shot. Needlessly to say, these soldiers were also exposed to gunfire from the enemy. If one soldier in the front row got killed or hurt, the soldier in the second row stepped up and joined the other soldiers in the front row to shoot. Then he was in the firing line.

Hence, metaphorically people who are described as “in the firing line” are exposed to danger, usually criticism for being responsible for some wrong doing.

In the example from above, the fast food industry being “in the firing line” means they’re held responsible for getting children fat.

And rightly so, if you ask me.

Anyways, here are two media examples:

1. A coalition of 40 Scottish charities has called for a radically simplified and “fairer” welfare system.

The Scottish Campaign on Welfare Reform (SCoWR) urged politicians to back five key reforms on benefits.

These include raising the basic level of support by ￡100 a week and urgently reviewing sickness benefit.

John Dickie, of the Child Poverty Action Group, said people currently had to jump through “impossible hoops to claim meagre benefits”.

The SCoWR has outlined the reforms in its own manifesto published ahead of the forthcoming general election...

The document claimed many people were struggling to feed and clothe themselves on the current level of basic benefits, at about ￡65 a week...

The new rules mean even those with a terminal illness can now be required to attend often "pointless and humiliating" interviews, according to SCoWR.

Citizens Advice Scotland said it was clear that services were “in the firing line” of politicians looking to make spending cuts.

- Call for ‘fairer’ welfare reform, BBC.co.uk, March 29, 2010.

2. Martin Gore from Depeche Mode isn’t generally the sort of person who has much to do with video games. This week, however, his name is popping up all over the place in the gaming media, and we’re sure even he’s confused as to why.

Simply put, Mr. Gore, along with actress Winona Ryder, is being subpoenaed to testify in a lawsuit against publishers of World of Warcraft. This is the fourth (and allegedly ‘final’) games-related court case filed by American gamer Erik Estavillo.

Prior to this, Mr. Estavillo has taken Sony to court, after he was banned from Resistance: Fall of Man for “inappropriate behaviour”. More recently, Microsoft were in the firing line, due to the “undue stress” he suffered after his Xbox 360 started showing the dreaded Red Ring of Death. Nintendo didn’t miss out either, with their suit arriving after the 4.3 Wii firmware update disabled the console’s Homebrew Channel.

This time around, Activision Blizzard are in trouble for “deceitful business practices” because characters in World of Warcraft move too slowly, meaning gamers have to spend large amounts of time travelling from place to place. Faster transportation is only achieved once a player has levelled up, or once they fork out for an expansion pack. Obviously, both of these options are all part of a clever ploy to generate more money from subscriptions – and Mr. Estavillo would like a million bucks as an apology.

- Activision Blizzard sued: WoW takes too long,Gamepron.com, November 28, 2009.

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

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（作者張欣 中國日報網英語點津 編輯陳丹妮）