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Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

March 31st, 2008
By T-STEEL, Site Administrator

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What is infinitely bothersome this campaign season is how the words of Senators Clinton, McCain, and Obama are micro-parsed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Meanings are pulled out of non-meanings. Non-ideas pulled out of ideas. So on and so forth. Case in point: Senator Obama’s words at a town hall meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania last Saturday. Consider the following that he said (via The Brody Files):

When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention is education, which should include — which should include abstinence education and teaching the children — teaching children, you know, that sex is not something casual. But it should also include — it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.

Watch the video here to get the rhythm of the statement. I read Senator Obama’s words and watched the video and nothing jumped out at me as alarming. But to David Brody at The Brody Files (part of the Christian Broadcast Network website), something is amiss:

I understand Obama was talking off the cuff and these were not prepared remarks. I also know that when you’re on the campaign trail 20 hours a day you will say something you wish you hadn’t. But still. “Punished with a baby?” That just doesn’t sound right. Why use the word punished? I would think that word would be alarming to people and possibly offensive to those who have had babies out of wedlock.

And then:

Later on, when speaking about abortion he (Obama) did refer to his daughters as “miracles” when he said:

“This is a very difficult issue, and I understand sort of the passions on both sides of the issue. I have two precious daughters - they are miracles.”

I’m an assistant high school football coach. Two players a year ago got their 16 year old girlfriends (the guys were 16 also) pregnant. And those girls were definitely “punished” in the sense that their teenaged lives drastically altered. No school dances. No extracurricular activities. Motherhood thrust upon them when they were not ready. And that lack of motherhood readiness in today’s society frequently feels like punishment. They even said as much when they approached me and I listened to their laments. YET they both fought through that initial phase and are toughing it out now. Both girls are juggling high school and motherhood. In one case, the guy is supportive and there with her. In the other case, the guy has shirked his responsibilities. But is using the word punished in the context Senator Obama used it “offensive to those who have had babies out of wedlock”? And then Mr. Brody proceeds with the “Does He Care About His Children” test.

My dear Americans…

Yes running for the Presidency and being the President of the United States is extremely visible. But not everything these candidates say imply something else. It is what it is. But micro-parsing is good for MSM and the blogosphere. Look at me. I’m writing about the micro-parsing.

Go figure.



This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under John McCain, Newsweek Blogitics, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, 2008 Elections, Media Criticism, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 7 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    Conversations regarding abortion, or contraception, or abstinence, etc etc have taken on their own "PC" language. It's very similar (imho) to how one refers to the troops.

    One cannot refer to a baby as anything other than a blessing that will enrich one's life, no matter one's circumstances, or one is blaspheming.

    Similarly, one cannot criticize say... Mahmoudiya, or notice Abu Ghraib, without being called out for attacking the troops. (i.e. not patriotic)

    And this unhealthy tendency to bury dialogue in shrieks and shouts is not limited to one side or another of the political aisle. All of it is of a piece with discussions of inner city poverty, and/or race relations. There are places one cannot safely travel, verbally, without being attacked.

    It's part and parcel of what's killing our ability to "come together", politically or socially, as a nation.
    • ^
    • v
    I would go further and point out how the children resulting from unwanted pregrancies are frequently punished (realizing full well that my views make me unelectable. :) )

    For years I was in contact with an orphange, full of cast-aside chilfren. That adoption is a readily available option is a myth, considering the numbers in orphanages and foster care. That any woman, particularly when she herself is a child, can be a fit mother is a myth, considereing the cast-aside children in our society.
    Babies don't ask to be created. They are forced into this world by the decisions of others. Rather than making that decision a more serious one for the adults in the room, all the attention is on just getting that baby, any baby, into this world.
    Why? So we can feel good about ourselves as we shed tears over a few cells in a petri dish?
    Then, when the unwanted, uncared for baby grows up to be an unwanted and deficient adult, we are aghast. How did this happen in the land of opportunity?

    Amen to T-Steel and Polimom/
    .
    • ^
    • v
    Its all part of nightly news turning into a giant forum for editorializing. We used to report the news, local channels still do usually, but nowadays you get 30 seconds to report what went on/was said and then you get 10 minutes of hearing some "experts" opinion about it. This whole trend of let me tell you what it all means is contributing to the increasing authoritarianism of society. Those who find comfort in being told things that reinforce what they already believe love it, and its why FOX has come to dominate news and its competitiors have followed suit.
    • ^
    • v
    I blame the blogosphere. Before blogs it was bad enough.

    Then came Media Matters for America. I always thought its volunteers had to be mad...sitting and monitoring targets they despised day in and day out...waiting for right-winger gaffes to promote in UPPER CASE FONT. But MMA was a successful model, widely imitated by left and right.

    Every day another outrage. Most are absurd. But, if you throw enough sh*t at the wall...some of its is bound to stick eventually.

    Now the slightest gaffe of any of the 3 candidates is exposed as being revealing of ...well, whatever the smear meme of the week happens to be.

    I wish someone would declare a ceasefire...and get back to arguing about policy instead of Obama's daughters, for god's sake.
    • ^
    • v
    i think it's only a tempest in the teapot of right wing blogs.

    plus, in my own opinion, there are more than a few religious conservatives that actually do see a baby as punishment for out of wedlock sex.
    • ^
    • v
    Thanks T-Steel - the micro-parsing really does make mountains out of mole-hills and is something that needs to stop. It's a sad statement that much of the news cycles are driven by focusing on just one or two sentences taken from a speech, rather than focusing on the themes and proposals made in those speeches. I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be if my every word was recorded, and a few misstatements or bad analogies were replayed and analyzed ad-naseum on the nightly news...
    • ^
    • v
    You mean the micro parsing like Obama's accusation that John McCain is for 100 years of warfare in Iraq?

    He who lives by the micro-parse, dies by the micro-parse.

    Do you remember Polaroid cameras? You know, those cameras that took pictures which developed before your eyes? They would start out as a white square, and slowly you begin to see the picture.

    Barack Obama is a lot like that. He has tried desperately to keep himself a blank slate, but slowly, the picture is beginning to develop. I can understand how a man who voted against the Illinois born alive infant protection act, and appears to support unwanted babies who survive abortion to be left to die on the table would consider an out of wedlock baby a "punishment".

    Well, this one statement, like his comparing Rev. Wright's opinions to those of the black community at large speaks volumes as to the kind of man he is.
 
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