Frank Rich is among the best in the New York Times stable of columnists. Sure, I tend to agree with him more often than others, but I also think he makes the most reasoned appeals.
In his column today, (“Obama outwits the bloviators“) Rich tears apart the big media “bloviators” that I and most political bloggers talked about during last week’s Democratic convention coverage. Those same pundits, using twisted analysis to portay false drama, continue to bloviate their way through the Republican convention starting tomorrow. They’ll have a hurricane to work with, so who knows what kind of reality we’ll see in the St. Paul coverage. The problem is that the machinations of the media seem to be disconnected from the reality of not only this election, but what most Americans actually care about.
On an aside, I write a column every year when the big dictionary publishers release their “top words” of the year around Jan. 1. I don’t usually make an early call, but my call this year is for “bloviate” or one of its synonyms to appear on that list. I must take this moment to give a hat tip to Hibbing area teacher Craig Hattam who first turned me on to the word during an interview for my upcoming book. I don’t think our discussion of the word made the book, but it may make a future column.
Watching the talking heads on TV made me want to puke last week. I also read Rich’s column and thought it was very insightful (or at least reflected what I have been thinking but can’t exactly put into words like he does). CSPAN was my coverage of choice. I don’t know if I can bring myself to watch any coverage this week. I don’t know if I can handle Republicans feeding the American people twisted information and lies that are validated by Traditional Media bloviating talking heads. My urge to puke will definitely be increased.
Rich is just another media bloviator who happens to affirm a different set of prejudices.
I’ll grant you he’s a bloviator. So I am. But what prejudices are you talking about? The point is the the media narrative is wholly inaccurate. Not left or right, just inaccurate and sensationalistic.
My vote for the top word of this year is “aspect” which started its ascendency in daily use during 2007. Recently, it seems like you can hardly have a conversation without this word creeping in. Where the heck did it come from?