Not that long ago the ex-expat took new blogger Chris Trotter to task for unnecessarily stating that the media scrutiny Winston Peters is currently facing was "the political equivalent of gang-rape". After an extensive blog discussion he agreed to think more carefully about using analogies of that nature in the future.
But Herald on Sunday columnist, and former Act MP, Deborah Coddington has now gone there too, albeit not in defence of another, but in defence of herself. Coddington reckons that she suffered the "media equivalent of a gang-rape" over her wildly inflammatory and inaccurate Asian Angst article, which appeared in North & South in 2006 and was the subject of a successful Press Council complaint by a group of concerned journalists and citizens. I roll my eyes in her general direction.
Homepaddock points out succintly and effectively that it isn't necessary to use such hyperbole to mount an argument that someone is facing an excessive barrage of media interest. (See, there, I just did it without referring to anyone physically violating anyone else.) So if there are any columnists out there thinking about using gang-rape in an effort that isn't actually about gang-rape, please have a look at Homepaddock's offering and see what else you can come up with.
Hat tipped to Idiot/Savant.
3 comments:
I, too, rolled my eyes (balked) at Coddington's use of 'gang-rape' in her context.
It's amazing how quickly the meaning of a word or 'turn of phrase' can be warped and then become ingrained in our everyday language.
My pet hate is the noticeable increase in things/people/situations being 'gay' - it has somehow become the insulting word of the noughties.
Folk aren't meaning something/one is gay (happy), or gay (sexual tendency) or even gay (effeminate), they use gay to describe something as crap, and that irks me big time.
I agree lita, about the "gay" thing, it's especially disturbing when it's kids saying it :-(
The other synonym for crap that annoys me is saying something is "girlie" or "you throw like a girl". Do Valerie Villi and Beatrice Faumauina (hope I spelt those right) throw like girls?
"Throw Like a Girl" http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/throw-like-a-girl-with-some-practice-you-can-do-better/2012/09/10/9ffc8bc8-dc09-11e1-9974-5c975ae4810f_print.html
Post a Comment