There are many reasons not to watch the evening news. Their use of choice adjectives is one of them.
Next time you tune in, listen carefully to the words. See how they attempt to excite, anger, entice, frighten you about an event about to take place. The pick words to activate your senses. Their premise is to get you to watch, so they play is to your emotions.
Though my wife and I rarely watch the TV news, in the past when we have occasionally turned it on, we usually defaulted to NBC and Lester Holt. He was calm, his demeanor straightforward, his voice solid and unwavering.
But the words put in his mouth by the writers were (and are) a different story. “Stay with us tonight to watch this horrific tragedy unfolding in Whocaresabout, Alabama.”
“Coming up next is this marvelous story about a tremendously intelligent dog from Barksville, Tennessee. Don’t go away.”
“Stick with us. Our next story is a magnificent display of a fiery scene that outrages the residents of this quiet hamlet in Burnsville, Illiinois.”
The incidents can change. But the adjectives stay the same and are rotated repeatedly to get you sweating and contract your groin.
The spin defines a very, very edgy line between what is true and what is fiction. The adjective distorting the event makes it lean towards the misleading. What’s the split? Is it 75 percent truth and 25 percent fiction? Is it 50-50? The struggle is that it is on each individual viewer to weigh how the story is constructed and I’m not sure how many citizens have the skill set to decipher how the stories are put together to manipulate how they perceive an event.
If your only source for news is the television set, you better be an adjective watcher. Pay close attention to the word right before the noun and listen closely. Got it?
When you see the image of that wind off the coast of Florida, was it really “ferocious,” or was it just a slight breeze? Were those waves lapping the shore “titanic” in size or non-surfable they’re so tiny?
That new legislation being proposed in Congress – is it really so “controversial” or is it a run-of-the-mill series of paragraphs doomed for the basement archives within the next few weeks?
That “tremendous” explosion at the coal power plant in Nebraska – did it “shatter” the night or was it a small pop barely heard within the facility?
And, if you happen to watch wrestling and see Baron Von Raschke stalking the ring, foaming at his mouth, with his famed “maniacal” claw hold prepared to decimate his opponent, is it really “maniacal?” Would you submit in the match if he clamped it on your face or stomach? Only the opponent really knows.
Words are used to incite us through images. We lap it up. We become outraged, telling others about the good, bad and the ugly we view on the tube.
Choice adjectives paint the picture. The “remarkable” cat recovery was such a “marvelous” act of kindness to behold. I want to watch that one because it sound so nice.
Stay with us until your second cocktail tonight and your powers of observation are a little more skewed. Then we can really snow you.
Next time you tune in, listen carefully to the words. See how they attempt to excite, anger, entice, frighten you about an event about to take place. The pick words to activate your senses. Their premise is to get you to watch, so they play is to your emotions.
Though my wife and I rarely watch the TV news, in the past when we have occasionally turned it on, we usually defaulted to NBC and Lester Holt. He was calm, his demeanor straightforward, his voice solid and unwavering.
But the words put in his mouth by the writers were (and are) a different story. “Stay with us tonight to watch this horrific tragedy unfolding in Whocaresabout, Alabama.”
“Coming up next is this marvelous story about a tremendously intelligent dog from Barksville, Tennessee. Don’t go away.”
“Stick with us. Our next story is a magnificent display of a fiery scene that outrages the residents of this quiet hamlet in Burnsville, Illiinois.”
The incidents can change. But the adjectives stay the same and are rotated repeatedly to get you sweating and contract your groin.
The spin defines a very, very edgy line between what is true and what is fiction. The adjective distorting the event makes it lean towards the misleading. What’s the split? Is it 75 percent truth and 25 percent fiction? Is it 50-50? The struggle is that it is on each individual viewer to weigh how the story is constructed and I’m not sure how many citizens have the skill set to decipher how the stories are put together to manipulate how they perceive an event.
If your only source for news is the television set, you better be an adjective watcher. Pay close attention to the word right before the noun and listen closely. Got it?
When you see the image of that wind off the coast of Florida, was it really “ferocious,” or was it just a slight breeze? Were those waves lapping the shore “titanic” in size or non-surfable they’re so tiny?
That new legislation being proposed in Congress – is it really so “controversial” or is it a run-of-the-mill series of paragraphs doomed for the basement archives within the next few weeks?
That “tremendous” explosion at the coal power plant in Nebraska – did it “shatter” the night or was it a small pop barely heard within the facility?
And, if you happen to watch wrestling and see Baron Von Raschke stalking the ring, foaming at his mouth, with his famed “maniacal” claw hold prepared to decimate his opponent, is it really “maniacal?” Would you submit in the match if he clamped it on your face or stomach? Only the opponent really knows.
Words are used to incite us through images. We lap it up. We become outraged, telling others about the good, bad and the ugly we view on the tube.
Choice adjectives paint the picture. The “remarkable” cat recovery was such a “marvelous” act of kindness to behold. I want to watch that one because it sound so nice.
Stay with us until your second cocktail tonight and your powers of observation are a little more skewed. Then we can really snow you.