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The Expansionist
Saturday, August 21, 2004
 
Not-So-Pretty Polly. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a self-admitted “fake news” show on cable station Comedy Central, regularly broadcasts excerpts from the Republican propaganda machine in full attack mode employing scripts and buzzwords sent out to all its agents to repeat and repeat endlessly on every news and talk show they can. When John Edwards was selected as the Vice Presidential nominee by John Kerry, the attack phrase was “out of the mainstream”, and The Daily Show regaled viewers with a half dozen or dozen different Republicans attacking both Kerry and Edwards as “out of the mainstream”, “out of the mainstream”, “so far out of the mainstream”, “out of the mainstream”, etc., etc. ad nauseam. It was good for a laf, but the technique really isn’t funny at all. Here’s one way to stop it.
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The next time a Democratic spokesman standing by on the same show hears one of these buzzwords/scripts parroted by a Republican, he should squawk, imitatively, “Awwwwwk. Polly want a cracker?” and explain that Democrats are very tired of the mindless parroting of scripts by the Republican attack machine. If the Republican continues to throw around buzzwords, Democrats should keep interrupting with “Awwwk. Polly want a cracker?” or variations on that theme, e.g., “Pretty Polly, pretty Polly!” until the Republican stops his crap and addresses real issues in his own words.
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Oh, Republicans might try to use the same tactic against Democrats, just as Rightwingers have taken up and thrown back at liberals Michael Moore’s recently coined term “hatriot”, even tho it plainly doesn’t fit liberals. Still, having both Democrats and Republicans squawking like parrots at each other would clarify for listeners that what they’re hearing is just rote repetition of scripted buzzwords, as might move people in media to decide that the electorate deserves better, so newstalk hosts and interviewers won’t accept canned remarks but demand real exposition, in their own words, of what political flaks really mean. If party spokesmen don’t do that but keep spouting buzzwords, the INTERVIEWER should interrupt, “Awwwwk. Polly want a cracker? Pretty Polly, pretty Polly!” until the flak stops mouthing mindless catchphrases.
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The public is entitled to information and reasoned argumentation, not scripted soundbites.





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