Friday, November 03, 2023

How the Tone Police Are Like the Eye of Sauron



Like the Lord of Mordor, the Tone Police live safe within their media fortress.  Their scolding, judgemental gaze "pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh."

Usually this comes in the form of fussbudget cavils from lavishly remunerated oafs on the subject of how Democrats/Liberals are ruining any chance of us ever having nice things ever again, not because of the substance of what we say, but because of the tone of what we say falls too heavily on the virginal ears of these delicate creatures.

One example among hundreds here:

This Week on "Tone Cop!": Bret Stephens

But, because the D.C. press corps is bloated with layabouts and goobers anxious to get in good with their editors by counting a little coup against Democrats, sometimes the process is reversed.  Their reverence for tone over substance allows them to smirk at those hapless Democrats for trying to, y'know, f'rintance, tell the truth about MAGA Mike because MAGA Mike's tone and the way he parts his hair is so modest and 'umble.

It is a process and tactics story so trifling and light weight that it took Three!Count 'Em!Three! Washington Post reporters hanging on to it to keep it from floating away on the slightest breeze off the Potomac 

Democrats quickly seek to make Speaker Johnson a boogeyman

The party has begun painting House Republicans’ new leader as ‘MAGA Mike’ but may face a challenge given his low profile and quiet tone

By Tyler Pager, Michael Scherer and Marianna Sotomayor
November 1, 2023 at 5:00 a.m. EDT




I Am The Liberal Media


1 comment:

Eric Paul Jacobsen said...

The great thing about "tone" is that it's a purely non-political quality. So complaining about "tone" is a risk-free strategy for cowardly but ambitious broadcast journalists who want to impress their wealthy corporate sponsors with their "objectivity."