magerette
Hedgewitch
- Joined
- October 18, 2006
- Messages
- 7,834
As some of you may have noticed from my frequent rants about buzzwords and clliches and marketing hype in the world of games, I seem to have an abnormal sensitivity to BS.
The bastardization of our language by news merchants and idealogues and the omni-present "political pundits"--a new profession, apparently--anyone getting a degree in punditry out there??--seem to grate on me more than they should, so I am listing a few of the words and expressions I think need to be completely dropped from the media coverage of the US election before my head explodes:
Top Seven Cliches of the 2008 US Election:
7. Surrogate - formerly primarily in vogue as a term for women who were paid to carry someone else's baby to term, it now applies to anyone who opens their mouth with an opinion or comment that happens to have stated a preference for or have an association with a candidate, however remote. Whatever these comments and opinions are, regardless of the candidates involvement, they automatically become identified as the candidate's own.
6. Getting a free ride--used constantly of McCain, but also for pointing out any litttle gaffe by any candidate that hasn't had the requisite amount of jackal-like overkill.
5. Sister Souljah moment -a touching emotional occurrence where the media redefines betrayal as courage, or political expediency as honor. Appropriately invented by Bill Clinton in 1992 and now a prerequisite for seeking office.
4. Playing the race card--there are more than 52 cards in the race deck. If this happened as often as suggested, Las Vegas would go out of business.
3. The -gate suffix added to any event ("Bittergate, "Snipergate", etc) Olberman is really bad about this.
2. Humorous name distortion--Clintards, Obamabots, Obamanation, Hopey, Shrillery, Hil-liar-y, Hillraisers, ad infinitum. Strangely, the McAdd-your- Insult that is used with John McCain(McSame, McLame, McBush, McFossil, etc) is less annoying to me as it sometimes is actually pretty creative--or it could be my bias.
but without doubt, the single most ubiquitous, annoying, overused phrase in the election:
1. Throwing someone under the bus. If the media had a crime scene for every time this occurred, Washington would be blockaded by yellow tape. I had no idea our mass transit system was robust enough to allow for the sheer amount of this type of vehicular homicide presently happening on a daily basis. You'd think with the price of deisal so high, another form of punishment would be far more economical.
I'm sure there are many more, and if anyone wants to add to the list or gripe about the media in general, feel free. As for me, I feel much better now--thanks for listening.
The bastardization of our language by news merchants and idealogues and the omni-present "political pundits"--a new profession, apparently--anyone getting a degree in punditry out there??--seem to grate on me more than they should, so I am listing a few of the words and expressions I think need to be completely dropped from the media coverage of the US election before my head explodes:
Top Seven Cliches of the 2008 US Election:
7. Surrogate - formerly primarily in vogue as a term for women who were paid to carry someone else's baby to term, it now applies to anyone who opens their mouth with an opinion or comment that happens to have stated a preference for or have an association with a candidate, however remote. Whatever these comments and opinions are, regardless of the candidates involvement, they automatically become identified as the candidate's own.
6. Getting a free ride--used constantly of McCain, but also for pointing out any litttle gaffe by any candidate that hasn't had the requisite amount of jackal-like overkill.
5. Sister Souljah moment -a touching emotional occurrence where the media redefines betrayal as courage, or political expediency as honor. Appropriately invented by Bill Clinton in 1992 and now a prerequisite for seeking office.
4. Playing the race card--there are more than 52 cards in the race deck. If this happened as often as suggested, Las Vegas would go out of business.
3. The -gate suffix added to any event ("Bittergate, "Snipergate", etc) Olberman is really bad about this.
2. Humorous name distortion--Clintards, Obamabots, Obamanation, Hopey, Shrillery, Hil-liar-y, Hillraisers, ad infinitum. Strangely, the McAdd-your- Insult that is used with John McCain(McSame, McLame, McBush, McFossil, etc) is less annoying to me as it sometimes is actually pretty creative--or it could be my bias.
but without doubt, the single most ubiquitous, annoying, overused phrase in the election:
1. Throwing someone under the bus. If the media had a crime scene for every time this occurred, Washington would be blockaded by yellow tape. I had no idea our mass transit system was robust enough to allow for the sheer amount of this type of vehicular homicide presently happening on a daily basis. You'd think with the price of deisal so high, another form of punishment would be far more economical.
I'm sure there are many more, and if anyone wants to add to the list or gripe about the media in general, feel free. As for me, I feel much better now--thanks for listening.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2006
- Messages
- 7,834
