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COPYRIGHT 2005 Society for the Advancement of Education
IT IS NOTHING NEW, but it still is mean and unfair--the gratuitous reference to a person who has nothing to do with the story or the disparaging aside to the audience about the person in the story. These practices are part and parcel of the journalist's arrogance and preoccupation with trying to be a clever, witty, all-knowing insider. It is the equivalent of a wink, an inside joke at someone else's expense. We all are familiar with the game--it starts in grammar school and continues into the office. It involves gossip and the opportunity to bring down someone who seems to have it all: beauty, power, influence....
When done in private, it may be embarrassing or silly or inappropriate. Yet, when it occurs in print or on television, it becomes more than mean and juvenile--it labels an individual and influences how we think about that person. When performed...
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