This just in, American journalism has lost the ability to decode hyperbole. "Def: Hyperbole: Exaggeration used for emphasis. Hyperbole can be used to heighten effect, to catalyze recognition, or to create a humorous perception."
GOP: "Well, your guy's preacher says 9/11 is the chickens coming home to roost!"
DEM: "Well your guy's preacher said Hurricane Katrina was God's righteous anger at the gays!"
I guess this isn't so startling, since it's been happening everywhere in our society. The Supreme Court decision defining the limit of free speech as "yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater," is now being reinterpreted to include any kind of statement made anywhere to anyone that happens to be within earshot of the jittery and security obsessed ears of our cowed public. As a poet, who uses language to both explicate and instigate reactions from my readers, I find this alarming.
I also find it's horribly uninformative and distracting from the real issues to have this kind of saturation news coverage of a non-issue in the presidential races. Dare I speculate, that with the current presidential contests now taking 18 months, there's not a lot to talk about? Dare I say, if you leave out the heated rhetoric, the symbolism, the heresay, the innuendo-- that there's no difference between the candidates anyway, and there's no real reason for 5,000 journalists to even cover the races, hoping for news? Or would that be hyperbole?
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