In one of those elevator TVs, I saw this and had to chuckle a bit:

"Obama posthumously awarded two WWII veterans Medals of Honor."

It sure sounded to me that Obama made the awards after he, Obama, had died. But then I am probably being too literal again. And, yes, I could tell from context what really was meant. I am pretty sure I would have heard if Obama had died.

My favorite ad is for some lawyers who are seeking clients afflicted with some disease which they hope to profit from. The copy was "if you or someone in your family got sick or died....." Does that mean if you died, too? If you died, is there a bonus for actually contacting the lawyers without a séance?

I know! Our compatriots here tell us if we know what is meant, so be it. But I still think it is important to be as accurate as you can be when writing. It just becomes ridiculous otherwise.

Was this on a TV with closed captioning? That could be excused in that case. Even the block captions that appear in the news are written in a hurry and usually authors can't be blamed too much.

It seems to me that awkward phrasing appears in headlines on Yahoo news more than elsewhere.

Kalleh, I also read it as Oboma making the award after his own death. Good trick if you can do it.

You can never avoid ambiguity completely. Almost every sentence is ambiguous.Ambiguity in language is a feature, not a bug.

Yes, I think you've linked to it before, Goofy. I agree, but only to a point. Some people, and I am one of them, are more literal in their reading and I really have been confused sometimes. My favorite story on this, and I know I've posted it before here, is when one one of my friends was going to be formally introduced to her fiance's parents in China. She said, "I have to pour tea on my knees." I literally thought she had to pour hot tea on her knees (some culturalism) and I said, "Won't that hurt?" She looked at me - stunned - and then we both figured it out and laughed.

Sometimes ambiguity can sound silly. And sometimes it can be practical ambiguity that makes the sentence confusing. I don't disagree about that.