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dajoki

(10,678 posts)
Mon Nov 11, 2019, 11:01 AM Nov 2019

Beware mealy-mouthed and misleading language

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/media-beware-impeachment-hearings-will-be-the-trickiest-test-of-covering-trump/2019/11/08/1f2b0aac-0239-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

<<snip>>

Beware mealy-mouthed and misleading language. Punditry will be running even more amok than usual once the hearings begin. And we’ll be hearing a lot about what a divided nation we have and how ugly politics has become. We’ll be hearing the term “quid pro quo” endlessly.

Jon Allsop, writing in Columbia Journalism Review, suggested “quid pro quo” is inaccurate: “A president threatening to withhold military aid to a country unless it offers dirt on a domestic political rival, as Trump did, is not merely trading favors.” Questions about extortion or bribery — far riskier terms for would-be “balanced” journalists — are closer to the mark.

As for “polarization,” it’s a kind of false equivalence expressed in a single term, suggested Rosen: “We hear, ‘Oh things are so polarized now,’ when this is really about what’s happened to the Republican Party.”

In a potent Twitter thread last week, Ezra Klein of Vox pointed out that Trump’s abuses are so blatant that he “is the easiest possible test case for ‘Can our system hold a president accountable?’ And we are failing, because Republicans are failing.”

When journalists opt for safe language, when they pointlessly speculate, or succumb to Trump’s sideshow, they flunk the test.

Time to study up and ace it.
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Beware mealy-mouthed and misleading language (Original Post) dajoki Nov 2019 OP
Republicans declared war on us... Wounded Bear Nov 2019 #1
But we're not "declaring war" on them Proud Liberal Dem Nov 2019 #5
Preaching to the choir... Wounded Bear Nov 2019 #6
I know Proud Liberal Dem Nov 2019 #7
I think we all know... dajoki Nov 2019 #8
100% Agree! Proud Liberal Dem Nov 2019 #13
it's a war of propaganda versus facts Hermit-The-Prog Nov 2019 #11
And add election "meddling" to that list. n/t Tom Rinaldo Nov 2019 #2
Saying we're "polarized" is false equivalence. This is about the ex-GOP. Hortensis Nov 2019 #3
Europe was "polarized" around the end of 1939 Hermit-The-Prog Nov 2019 #12
Republicans have declared war on the rest of America? kentuck Nov 2019 #4
K&R for visibility crickets Nov 2019 #9
"Hey! Let's give the Ukraine to Russian just by pretending concern about the Bidens!" struggle4progress Nov 2019 #10

Wounded Bear

(58,437 posts)
1. Republicans declared war on us...
Mon Nov 11, 2019, 11:14 AM
Nov 2019

and it is kind of hard not to respond in kind. That's what they're counting on.

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,355 posts)
5. But we're not "declaring war" on them
Mon Nov 11, 2019, 11:41 AM
Nov 2019

Congress is holding him accountable using the duly created mechanisms put in place by the US Constitution for *allegedly* trying to use his powers as President as a means of smearing a potential political rival in the next Presidential election. Republicans are crying foul only because their boy got caught doing it this time (unlike with Russia 2016) and all they have to argue against is process, which, as far as I can tell, Democrats are following- per the rules the REPUBLICANS themselves created.

dajoki

(10,678 posts)
8. I think we all know...
Mon Nov 11, 2019, 12:46 PM
Nov 2019

that illegitimate conspired with Russia in 2016. One big problem was that the repukes had a two year head start in trying to cover the whole thing up and then barr stepped in to try to end the entire thing. I believe that the Democrats must keep pursuing the truth and make it part of the impeachment, subpoenas must be honored, the facts must be told and the truth needs to come out. We can still focus on the Ukraine scandal but everything has to be put out to the American people.



Hermit-The-Prog

(33,032 posts)
11. it's a war of propaganda versus facts
Mon Nov 11, 2019, 03:02 PM
Nov 2019

The multi-millionaires on tv are assisting the other puppets of oligarchs in the promotion of false equivalence and the softening of the current crisis for the masses.

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
3. Saying we're "polarized" is false equivalence. This is about the ex-GOP.
Mon Nov 11, 2019, 11:29 AM
Nov 2019

Yes! The whole article is worth reading as a smartening up for what we're going to be seeing.

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