Nicking
Yesterday Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman published his third column on the two Midwest Heroes ads that give voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war. Coleman criticizes the advertisements as "propaganda" and heaps abuse on them, although he has yet to demonstrate anything more than his disagreement with their message. Let's name the rhetorical device "nicking," in tribute to the closely related devices of "borking" and "milbanking." "Nicking" combines the two, consisting of someone with no particular knowledge of a subject opining about it based on abusive attacks rather than relevant facts.
Tink goes on to whine at considerable length about Coleman's (and other's) criticism of the commercials.
Boys and girls, Spotty wants to tell you about the “Texas cockroach defense.” It is a tactic in litigation that says If you don’t have a defense, just crawl all over the plaintiff or the prosecutor. And that is what Tink and the rest of the crew in Never Never Land are trying to do. Tink even writes to Kate Parry, the Readers Rep. at the Strib, with his ankle biting.
In his columns, Coleman makes three broad points. In the first commercial, Coleman writes, misleading claims are made. Both WCCO and KSTP agree with that. In the second, Coleman points out that not all members of Gold Star families support the war. Also demonstrably true. In the third, Coleman basically quotes from correspondence he has received from vets expressing doubts or opposition to the enterprise.
Tink’s shuck and jive does not touch these basic points, because it can’t. The best Tink can do is give us an impression of a pettifogging lawyer singing a patter song in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
Spot is actually disappointed in Tink. Spotty thought that Tink would have picked up on the William Buckley talking points about why the US failed in Iraq by now.
No comments:
Post a Comment