first, let's stop with the baby talk.

"The greatest thing about this man is he's steady," Colbert continued, in a nod to George W. Bush. "You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday."

in deference to a candidate who has not resorted to talking down to us, can we at least stop using baby talk like, "flip flop" & "flip flopper?"
i know we cannot expect the cool sophisticates of the media to stop, it's a guilty pleasure for them, like fart jokes - anderson cooper for one, can't wait to report the first charges of obama having "cooties." still, we should be able to discipline ourselves to the point of not using the language of preschoolers in a sandbox.

i urge anyone who is asked about "flip flopping flip flopper flips," to reply, "what's the grownup word?"
yeah, i'm an elitist, a 58 yr old, white guy working construction, with less than a 4 year diploma & i feel insulted when hear the phrase.

(imaginary "hardball" segment)

matthews: hasn't obama flip flopped on this?
(you can tell this is imaginary, the real chris matthews would have taken 3 minutes stuttering & modifying the question.)
guest "expert" who has graduated from 3rd grade: use a grownup word please chris. when you talk baby talk to me, i'm never clear on what you mean. do you mean "transient?" perhaps you are meaning "fickle," or only "malleable?"
matthews: i mean how do we know what someone stands for if they keep modifying their positions on things?
guest: well, you could listen to a candidate & analyze the content of their words, you know, do the work yourself, instead of letting the other campaign  masticate & regurgitate it for you, you could try that - you might even come up with other definitions of "flip flop," things like "flexible," or "nimble." the phrase, "works & plays well with others" comes to mind. i would think after 8 years of arrogant, close minded intransigence, what we used to call around the monkey bars, being a blockhead, the country might actually welcome a change.
matthews: thank you. next on "hardball," obama surrogate calls mccain a "blockhead," is he? we'll examine that question after the break.

•  stop insulting my intelligence

  mr stinky poopy pants.

  by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:06:44 PM PDT

  •  At least they don't call gaffes "boo-boos"

    by The Termite on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:08:37 PM PDT

    •  Yet

      by The Termite on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:08:44 PM PDT

    •  Heck now that you mention it.....

      boo-boo's sounds better than gaffes.

      How about "Fuck up" though....thats by far the most appropriate.

      by comeinpbrstreetgang on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:22:02 PM PDT

  •  I know you are

    but what am I...???

    ha, ha! so there!

    by voila on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:18:18 PM PDT

    •  why isn't paul reubens running a campaign anyway?

      by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:36:23 PM PDT

•  You'd make a great guest on Hardball.

  Of course, no one would hear what you have to say since the GOP would be talking over you at the same time to drown you out.

  by highfive on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:09:43 PM PDT

  •  the gop guest & matthews

    by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:12:12 PM PDT

    •  I love the Tweetster

      ... especially the way he asks a question and then the guest never gets a chance to answer cuz Matthews won't STFU long enough for anyone else to get a word in.

      That's some great journalistic craft right there.

      by DBunn on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 01:48:04 PM PDT

  •  that's why I can't watch..

    hardball/msnbc* much anymore - 'cause I'm so tired of Buchanan & Scarborough drowning out Maddow and Robinson.
    
    
    
    *with the exception of Countdown
    
    
    ````
    peace
    
    

    by peace voter on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:13:22 PM PDT

    •  It's just crickets here in the evening.

      I never hooked up the cable TV.   I highly recommend it.  People at DKos will keep you up on the latest outrages , and all the good bits get posted up on YouTube anyhow.

      by Anubis Bard on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:16:55 PM PDT

      •  Watching the USA TV lowers your IQ

        The purpose of TV in the US is to turn people into zombies, but it needs to turn them into zombies in a way that still lets them use their credit cards.

        by PhilK on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 01:49:54 PM PDT

    •  i don't like it, but since "crossfire,"

      i've gotten used to it. a reasonable substitute for ipecac, however, is a loop of matthews batting his eyes at laura ingraham & cooing, "you're great."

      by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:18:00 PM PDT

      •  He's just trying

        to get laid.  By anyone.  So he goes to the lowest common denominator.  That would always be the Republican flack.

        by Grannus on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 03:24:39 PM PDT

•  Good points!

  You know, this sort of thing has been going on so long that I don't even notice it.  Thank you for shining a light on it.

  The dumbing down of our national discourse is a tragedy.  Do the corporate media shills think they need to use "common man" language to appeal to their viewers?  I assure you, Bobby NASCAR isn't watching Anderson Cooper or Hardball.  

  It is all too tempting to believe that "your side" is being persecuted by the media, by the establishment.  The right wing believes this, hence the Liberal Media and MSM tags they apply to the corporate media in our country.  The left believes that THEY are the ones being sandbagged by the corporate media.

  Are they both right?  Neither?  Is the truth somewhere in the middle?  I don't know, it's too difficult to judge it objectively because I am on the left so I see a lot of nonsense that makes itseems that MY side of the political battle in this nation is under attack.  

  Either way, they keep lowering the bar though.  I assume a lot of these talking heads on the "news" stations are well educated and intelligent people.  Why they have to talk in such insipid language baffles me.

  by Rick Aucoin on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:13:22 PM PDT

  •  When the media became the sound-bite-clip

    media

    instead of the news media -- that is when everything changed.

    Unless the 3 year olds can relate -- forget it.

    by sara seattle on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:18:48 PM PDT

    •  40 years ago they said television was directed

      to the mind of a 12 yr old, you can see our national progress reflected clearly in the intelligence level of our media discourse.

      by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:26:58 PM PDT

  •  I wouldn't assume they're intelligent or well-edu

    cated.  But more to the point, I think the media sifts out people who get hung up on time-consuming things like nuance, context, curiosity, or thoroughness.  That leaves the people who will hold forth on anything, whether they have a clue or not.  We're seeing the end result of a selection process that creates a journalism that probably insults the intelligence of half-way conscious people on both the right and left.

    by Anubis Bard on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:21:29 PM PDT

    •  the media is most offensive, to me,

      not because they are lacking in intelligence, but because they assume their audience is.

      by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:34:36 PM PDT

      •  The thing that irritates me the most

        is the level of "guests" they interview. So&so Republican strategist...now just what the hell do they think this person is going to say that's newsworthy?  They all say the same things, the talking points of whichever party they represent--ad nauseum, the same JUNK. Of course when someone does say something "off message"--a la Clark--all hell breaks loose because the MSM don't know what to make of an "original" comment--which they misunderstand half the time anyhow.

        by purplepenlady on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:47:56 PM PDT

•  great diary...

  I was thinking the same thing myself about Bush being such a black and white, stubborn ideologue and how much of a disaster that has been.

  by America2028 on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:18:17 PM PDT

•  Maybe the MSM is taking their cues from

  our current leader... a truely masterful wordsmith, just graduated from kindergarten with honors.

  by New Earth on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:20:59 PM PDT

  •  doesn't everybody put food on their family?

    it's how barb used to serve the grub.

    by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:31:07 PM PDT

•  flip-flop has got to be the most played out

  term ever. It has no meaning whatsoever. And yet it keeps getting played. If you say you are going to do something and you change your mind later based on changes since you made your statement then you are a human being.

  by jpolon on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:24:17 PM PDT

  •  perhaps even a thoughtful human being.

    though that's not really a plus for some folks.

    by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:29:53 PM PDT

•  Funny, insightful and

  completely appropriate, not to mention timely.

  I've always loved hard hats with brains underneath them -- you have plenty of "cred" with me.  I'm a Viet Nam era community college (all of 3 semesters) drop-out.

  Never been cowed by those with extended and/or fancy educations who subtlely remind me of it -- my older brother was a doctoral candidate in astro-physics at Princeton, now asks me for advice re: living.  I'll take school of hard knocks any time.

  [Que Lily Tomlin in huge rocking chair: "... and that's the truth!" [raspberry].]

  by ceebee7 on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:52:38 PM PDT

  •  ah yes, jr college in the late sixties

    where the returning soldiers spit on the hippies. then, a year later, they were hippies themselves.

    by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 01:58:51 PM PDT

•  I was listening to the guy who does Elmo

  on NPR this morning and realized that he would fit right in on most MSM "news" shows.  The entire idea of flip flop as applying to the candidacy for the most important elected office on the planet is so totally incongruent it makes my ears bleed.

  Great, funny diary.

  by nsfbr on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 01:59:30 PM PDT

•  The media are so dumb

  Seems like they can only deal with one or two topics at a time, and if one is a missing white girl, that leaves only one other slot for all the politics, world and national affairs, etc to try to fit into. No wonder we are constantly surprised when sh*t happens-- "No one could have foreseen... [insert painfully, obviously predictable event here]".

  Then whatever they do deal with, it's in infantile and almost entirely symbolic terms. And repetitive ad nauseam, with every Very Important Pundit feeling the need to say once again exactly what every other talking head has just said.

  What's come to interest me is the degree to which this site has become like the msm lately. We have our Hot Topics that come and go, but whatever topic is Hot at a given moment is all anyone wants to talk about. So we get 50 diaries at a time on Obama/FISA, all saying one of two things, with dozens or hundreds of comments all making the same two or three supporting points, and a lot of folks getting seriously ad hominem over whatever.

  I don't say this to single out kossacks for being especially stupid or superficial. In fact, I know that the crowd around here is a lot smarter and better informed than the average citizen, yet still we see this behavior. The conclusion I draw is that there must be some non-rational aspect of human nature that prompts a large group to move into this type of highly redundant conversational convergance.

  Kinda makes me wonder if that's part of why the msm behave as they do. They are in the business of delivering what people want, after all.

  by DBunn on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 02:14:06 PM PDT

  •  well, like fast food or automakers,

    first they're going to try to sell you what they've got. much easier to convince you to buy a burger, fries & 44oz of coke, or an s.u.v. than to design & market an entirely different model.

    by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 02:33:22 PM PDT