The KellyGram

Wisdom and Wit About the Wonderful and Often Wacky World of Words

Published by Bob Kelly

Resident Wordsmith and Quotemeister

WordCrafters, Inc.

www.wordcrafters.info

Providing the Right Word for Speakers, Writers, Ministry Leaders, Business Executives and Just Plain Folks – since 1979!

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Volume 6 – Number 9 September 2008

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Welcome to Issue 69 of The KellyGram!

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In about eight weeks, citizens across the nation will go to the polls to determine who will lead us for the next four years. These are critical times, both at home and around the globe, and it's essential that we place our trust in those candidates whose demonstrated leadership skills are beyond question.

It's for each of us, individually, to decide who are best qualified to be those leaders. A new three-minute movie, produced by Simple Truths, LLC, offers many excellent insights into the qualities of a leader, and of our responsibilities in choosing the right ones. Consider, for example, these words from Thomas Jefferson: "The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."

Titled Great Quotes from Great Leaders, this short movie features memorable quotes by legendary leaders from around the world. They include George Washington, Golda Meir, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and other men and women famed for their leadership skills. To view the movie, please click on the following link: http://www.simpletruths.com/a.aspx?af=1082&mo=GQGL.

In This Issue:

• Fun with Words
• Yippideehooha!
• The Quote Corner (Media)
• A Web Site Worth Checking
• Smile Awhile
• Odds and Ends
• The Last Word

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FUN WITH WORDS

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Each pair of the following words can be changed into synonyms by adding new starting letters. For example, __EARNING and __RAVING become YEARNING and CRAVING.

__ROUND __OIL

__COLD __HIDE

__ARROW __LENDER

__LIMB __SCENT

__HATTER __RATTLE

You'll find the correct answer elsewhere in this issue.

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YIPPIDEEHOOHA!

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On a web site which we'll describe in more detail below, we came across a word that aptly describes the recent media frenzy over the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States. The word is "Yippideehooha," used to describe "the excessive media excitement over any major news event and the continued 'coverage' that ensues."

In this case, the so-called "coverage" has gone on, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, and has included, it seems, interviews with anyone and everyone who has known this candidate since the day she was born. For example, one TV interviewer asked a woman who has known Mrs. Palin for many years this really deep and perceptive question: "Where were you when you heard the news that she had been nominated?" Well, duh! And duh again! Who cares?

Unfortunately, this kind of mindless questioning has become all too common on all too many TV "news" programs, with what seem to be ill-disguised attempts to fill time between commercials.

Having been raised in a newspaper family (my dad spent his career with the New York Times), and as a former newspaper editor and publisher myself, I hate to see what's going on today in the so-called MSM (Mainstream Media), where objectivity seems to be a lost art. It's little wonder that newspapers, in particular, are in such dire financial straits.

Fortunately, the Information Age has brought with it many alternatives to the MSM, whose practitioners would be wise to heed the warnings coming from media veterans themselves. For example, R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr., founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator, a conservative monthly magazine covering news and politics, uttered this warning: "The hold of major media has been reduced by the competing utensils of the rising information age."

Bernard Goldberg, who served as a CBS reporter for 28 years, winning six Emmy Awards, and is now a Fox News commentator, was even more direct: "If the media elites maintain their arrogance and don’t change, they’ll cease to be serious players in the national conversation and become the journalistic equivalent of the leisure suit – harmless enough but hopelessly out of date."

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THE QUOTE CORNER (Media)

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After reading the above item, it will certainly surprise no one that our topic for this month's quotations is Media.

It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.
    Walter Benjamin

In a democracy, every player in the political system is held accountable by someone else. The media also need a check and a balance. If the media think it’s unfair that there’s someone "driving up their negatives" and damaging their credibility, they ought to realize they also live in that democracy. Get used to it.
    Brent Bozell

Treat the media as you would any other watchdog. Stay calm. Be friendly. Let them sniff your hand – and never turn your back.
    Zack Burnett

The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
    Samuel Butler

Wooing the press…is an exercise roughly akin to picnicking with a tiger. You might enjoy the meal, but the tiger always eats last.
    Maureen Dowd

The chief danger which threatens the influence and honor of the press is the tendency of its liberty to degenerate into license.
    James A. Garfield

The press is like the peculiar uncle you keep in the attic – just one of those unfortunate things.
    G. Gordon Liddy

I take a grave view of the press. It is the weak slat under the bed of democracy.
    A. J. Liebling

Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.
    Marshall McLuhan

The media don’t cover the news. They hunt it down, beat it to death, resuscitate it and beat it to death again.
    Kathleen Parker

[The word] media is the plural of mediocre.
    Rene Saguisag

If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.
    William Tecumseh Sherman

Every newspaper and every television commentator has a right to criticize any aspect of the war in Iraq or anywhere else. But when they claim to be reporting the news, that does not mean filtering out whatever goes against their editorial views and hyping unsubstantiated claims that discredit the troops.
    Thomas Sowell

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your honor. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.
    Mark Twain