11/07/2007
Only slightly more subtle than Fox News (updated with a sense of embarassment)
The Washington Post today features a story about Dennis Kucinich's attempt to start impeachment proceedings against VP Dick Cheney.
The Republicans and the Democrats are engaging in some sort of parliamentary ballet about this measure; it's a foregone conclusion that it won't play, but the Republicans are trying to embarass the Democrats by actually debating it in public.
While I think Kucinich would make a dandy president, and the country would benefit greatly by impeaching Cheney (and Bush) by Tuesday of next week, that's not my concern here.
Take a look at the online version of the Post's story.
Notice the subhead at the very top of the story, in red: The Impeachment Menace.
What are the choices the Post's editor could have made on this score? Well, "Impeachment" would work; simple, elegant, to the point, accurate. "Impeachment Struggle" would have worked, certainly an accurate description; likewise "Call For Impeachment," "Impeachment Effort," and "Impeachment Bill" would all have served.
But the Post chose a heavily loaded term: "The Impeachment Menace." Menace to whom? The voters? Hardly; the Democrats stumbled into office in 2006 behind a huge dissatisfaction with the Republicans.
What this is is a small, subtle move on the part of the Washington Post to increase its own identification with the Bush scum, and to give the impression that a move for impeachment is somehow a menace to the United States, it seems to me. But this isn't an editorial, nor a column, nor an op-ed piece; this purports to be news.
This sort of slant is what one would expect from Ailes and his band of sh*t-slingers at Fox; not, one trusts, what we would expect from a putative news organization.
I realize I'm paranoid, but wouldn't it be nice if one of these major organizations stopped pushing the hysteria button every time they thought they might get away with it? I don't see prejudicial sub-heads like this over stories about the religious right's efforts to outlaw evolution or abortion, or over stories about how some Republican bumpkin is attempting to return government to feudal times.
More lighthearted music and video posts next week, when I calm down.
Update
Sabina generously wrote in to point out that the Post probably meant some reference to Dennis The Menace, which hadn't even occurred to me. While the connection is still somewhat (but less) derogatory, I'm distressed to realize that losing my sense of humor seems to be a byproduct of my political interests, and needs to be worked against.
Please stand by while I see if I can come up with a good joke about Guantanamo...
And how come only one person wrote in to point this out? Are you all sitting out there snickering at me while I make a fool of myself? Or is everyone as paranoid as I am? (probably not a good thing)