Posted on 03/03/2011 8:01:04 AM PST by Kaslin
In just about everything, language matters.
We need to put the gun metaphors away and permanently, intoned (then) MSNBC personality Keith Olbermann on Jan. 8, the night Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona had been shot.
For his part, the anchor seemed mostly concerned with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. If she does not repudiate her own part in amplifying violence and violent imagery in politics, she must be dismissed from politics -- she must be repudiated by the members of her own party, and if they fail to do so, each one of them must be judged to have silently defended this tactic that today proved so awfully foretelling, and they must in turn be dismissed by the responsible members of their own party, Olbermann warned in one long, run on sentence.
Palins foretelling tactic had been to put a bulls eye on Giffords and encourage her supporters to vote against the congresswoman. In other words: politics as practiced down through the decades.
Echoing Olbermann, some journalists tried their best to avoid martial metaphors. A CNN reporter started to ask a leader of Arizonas Tea Party of he believed he been targeted, but she managed to stop halfway through the word and replace it with singled out.
But within weeks, it was back to business as usual. In National Journal magazine, Ron Brownstein wrote, As President Obama confronts a resurgent Republican Party, he finds himself fighting a two-front war. War, you say?
Elsewhere, on Feb. 27 columnist Dana Milbank of the Washington Post opined that Under [Gov. Scott] Walkers tribal political theory, governing is a never-ending cycle of revenge killings.
The point here isnt to compile a list of journalists whove used violent imagery. Wed run out of space before we ran out of examples. The point is that we should insist that reporters and politicians alike use words accurately, so voters can be sure theyll get what theyre promised. Consider one example: affordable housing.
The Obama administration recently unveiled tentative plans to eventually shut down housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and allow private lenders to control the housing market once again. This swiftly raised complaints from the Left.
My underlying concern is that they may radically increase the cost of homeownership, and housing in general, over the coming years, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told reporters. Well, if its affordable housing Waters wants, she need only look around.
Fannie and Freddie spent the first 10 years of this century doing what Rep. Waters says she wants the government to do: promoting affordable housing. Meanwhile, prices were soaring almost everywhere. The governments actions triggered a bubble -- the exact opposite effect than its words called for.
Today, with the government finally talking about getting out of the mortgage market, home prices in some sections of the country are now comparable to prices of luxury cars, reported housing Web site zillow.com recently.
We wont know what homes are really worth until theres a market thats reasonably free from government interference. What we do know is that federal attempts to promote affordable housing had the exact opposite effect.
Or consider President Obamas proposed federal budget. Obama Budget Makes Deep Cuts, Cautious Trades, reported the front page of the Washington Post. Obama himself promises some significant spending cuts so that by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to the national debt.
Well, the president aims to spend some $3.7 trillion, of which $1.1 trillion would be borrowed money. As politifact.com puts it, with deficits every year for the next 10 -- and no surpluses -- the nations accumulated debt will rise every year for the next decade.
Proposed cuts never seem to develop. When times are good and tax money is rolling in, politicians are eager to boost spending. When times are bad, politicians insist they need to boost spending to save the economy. That only leads to failed stimulus packages and unsustainable budgets.
President Bushs final budget proposal promised a balanced budget by 2012. Missed by a mere trillion dollars. Expect Obamas rosy scenarios to fall short, too. Its time for our language to reflect reality, not promote fantasies. That way people can know what theyre voting for.
That whole civility thing and not using violent metaphors is only for Republicans/conservatives. The liberals/Democrats/anarchists can still say and do whatever they want, and will get cover in the MSM. Only conservatives were supposed to tone it down after Tucson.
I don’t have a violent metaphor for Olberman, but one which I am sure he would enjoy.
He should go screw himself.
There isn’t a more brainless fool in the journalism business than this pile of excrement.
It is a testament to ignorance that anyone would even listen to him in any way.
You are giving brainless fools a bad rap.
Besides, there are literally dozens of contenders for that spot amongst his peers.
[[Making Words Matter
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words don’t matter- POWER matters- We can all talk all we want, point out the truth day in and day out, but at the end of the day- the dems are goign to do exactly what they want, when htey want, and there’s not much that can be done about it unless we the peopel stand up collectively and say NO MORE- until that happens, nothign that really needs to be made right will be made right- oh, the left may conceede on small moot points to ‘appease’ the right so we don’t squack too much- but unless we the people get serious- the machine of hte lefft is just going to keep steamrolling over the right
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