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Sticks and stones department

Last paragraph of Court Briefs of a recent edition of the

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News, Spin

The G (rated) spot

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Not tonight, dear, this is a G-rated spot Friday, November. 11, 2005. Michael Scherer, Salon.com’s Washington correspondent, reported today on a hearing conducted Thursday by the Senate’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. A writer named Pamela Paul testified, quoted as having said the following: “‘If they […]

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News, Spin

Haven’t they been through enough?

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Monday, Oct. 2, 2005: Refugee, evacuee, ban, persecute. Who could object — well, I couldn’t — when Oprah Winfrey in the second week after Hurricane Katrina pronounced from New Orleans that people who made it through the devastation “survivors”? It’s uplifting, optimistic, triumphant and, well, true. But essentially all of […]

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News, Spin

Shareholders, spill your bean counters

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Monday, Sept. 26, 2005: One of my guilty pleasures finally is starting to regurge on me. I have been enjoying accounts in journalism-industry media of the big, bad bean counters and how they’re ruining my profession. It’s so obvious, it’s so true, it’s so commented upon it must be so. […]

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News, Spin

Gulf of misunderstanding

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, September 2, 2005: Gulf War III. This one is American, too, but it’s being fought on a different Gulf. Thoughts about Hurricane Katrina. In my morning paper today is a color insert ad, Heartland Honda of Springdale: four glossy pages on gas-powered portable generators. Now I know the biz, […]

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News, Spin

Mock of the Mockingbird

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock “[Russ A. Charif, a research biologist at Cornell Lab of Ornithology,] said after his talk that the ‘kent’ sounds alone were not conclusive because scientists could not completely rule out a blue jay mimicking the sound of an ivory bill. …” — The New York Times, Aug. 25, 2005. Yeah, […]