Posts tagged as:

media

RIBALD [RIB-uhld] : to use coarse language, foul-mouthed

April 23, 2013

The internet is ablaze with the video of the first-day-on-the-job (and last!) news anchor at a Dakota tv station who didn’t know the mike was on yet and let loose with a pretty graphic comment.  Yes, he was fired after his first day. David (Papi)  Ortiz, beloved Designated Hitter for the Red Sox, added an [...]

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ARTICULATE [adj., n. ahr-TIK-yuh-lit; v. ahr-TIK-yuh-leyt]: expressed, formulated, or presented with clarity and effectiveness

February 12, 2013

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) has to have been one of the most articulate public speakers in our nation’s history.   His ability behind a microphone or on the back end of a campaign train was incomparable.  FDR’s ability to make a difficult point in words that could be understood by people with many levels of [...]

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TROOP: a collective noun indicating a band of soldiers, scouts, or other gatherings of people

July 30, 2012

When I was a kid I belonged to a Boy Scout troop.   It was a sizable gathering of boys who were divided into smaller units called patrols.  An individual who belonged to a troop was called a scout. State Police who are assigned to a specific segment of a state for service are called a [...]

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SYCOPHANT [SIK-uh-fuhnt]: one who ‘sucks up” to a prominent person with flattery and gifts

July 2, 2012

It’s a disgusting form of flattery.   When you can see right through the words and realize that someone is just flattering someone to gain benefits and really doesn’t mean what she is saying, it is nauseating.    The word for that behavior is sycophant, someone who is disingenuous or insincere in their good words. If a [...]

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GAFFE: a public statement the speaker wishes had been ignored

June 28, 2012

It seems to be happening more in this election season than I can remember from previous ones.  Almost every day there is a report of a gaffe on the part of a candidate.   Some late-night entertainers have even started a daily spot of the “Gaffe of the Day.” It might seem as if it happens [...]

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OPPROBRIUM: disgrace, scandal

May 21, 2012

A number of articles in the media used the word opprobrium when referring to the scandal surrounding former Senator John Edwards (D-NC.)    Now let’s be honest, it’s not a word that just pops into your mind when thinking about the ways in which public figures disgrace themselves and get caught.  In fact, it really doesn’t [...]

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CAMPAIGN FATIGUE: growing tired of political campaigns

December 11, 2011

It’s just about now that staff members of a political candidate are beginning to experience serious campaign fatigue.   Sleep deprivation, poll anxiety, long days, short nights, constant noise, and who knows what else.  They all contribute to the phenomenon which leads to mistakes, blunders, and nasty exchanges bordering on near-firings. But campaign fatigue is not [...]

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ABSTRUSE: hard to understand

October 24, 2011

  An explanation that just doesn’t make things clear is said to be abstruse.  You’ve been there.  You ask someone a question about what something means, or how something works.  The answer you get leaves you in an even-more-confused state. It is very disconcerting to the person giving the explanation, because the answer is perfectly [...]

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COUNTER-CULTURE:

September 16, 2011

The late 60′s and early 70′s were my cultural puberty.   I was still quite fuzzy and I hadn’t yet developed my adult voice.  I was in the process of becoming culturally aware and my attempts at demonstrating it were fumbled and awkward. It was during that era that a phenomenon covered his country that has [...]

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BULLY PULPIT: a highly visible political position from which a person can present an opinion

August 17, 2011

There’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about the bully pulpit various candidates have from which they can profess their views. Not surprisingly, the term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, for whom the term bully was a positive.  It meant strong, forceful, and aggressive, terms that would naturally apply to the [...]

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