Shut Your Loophole

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Jack Shafer

...the word loophole

It's a loaded, partisan word, one that implies wrongdoing and scandal where none exists, and inserting it into a political argument gives the inserter the upper hand. When loophole creeps into news stories, they start to read like editorials.

For these obvious reasons, news reporters should keep their stories and headlines loophole-free. But they don't. In the past six months, the news pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Washington Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal have published at least 45 stories with the nasty word in the headline.

The Washington Post shouted loophole just yesterday in "Loophole Lets Candidates Skirt Donation Limit" (July 23). Using the word in both the headline and the story, the Post reports that presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and John Edwards are legally collecting donations for their presidential campaigns at the same time they're gathering money from other political entities connected to them. For example, presidential candidate Clinton has also declared herself a candidate for re-election to the Senate in 2012, thus allowing supporters to make double donations to her.

The Post headline makes the candidates sound extra naughty by stating that the loophole allows them to "skirt" donation limits. Like loophole, skirt is a slippery, vague, and slightly accusatory word. But why should we think of it that way? By definition, anybody who skirts a law is still in compliance with it. A more accurate headline for the Post piece would have been "Candidates Exercise Maximum Fund-Raising Rights."

...

Some headline writers regard any lawful behaviors as a voyage through a loophole. Consider the May 23 headline to a Cox News Service story published in the Chicago Tribune: "House Blocks Stores' Bank Bid; Senate May See Closer Vote on Bill Closing Loophole."

What's the loophole? Under current law, the article explains, firms can own and operate "industrial loan companies," a limited type of bank. Such institutions are so common that 58 corporations, including General Motors, Target, and American Express, operate ILCs, the story reports.

...

I don't mean to suggest that ideology lurks behind every headline that includes the "L" word. (It's okay with me if editorialists and op-ed columnists use the word.) Headlines are usually written by the copy staff, and while some of these suffering bastards are closet Marxists who want the government to run everything, most of them merely pick up on the themes inside the article itself. If the reporter calls something a loophole, and the editor approves it, who are they to avoid it? Especially when they're on deadline.

Likewise, most reporters I know are less interested in pushing their political views on readers than they are in getting interesting information printed. They rely on loophole because it compresses interesting findings from the complex worlds of campaign finance, taxation, or regulation into a bite-size nugget their editor can swallow: "Oh, it's a loophole story! Why didn't you say so?"

But it shouldn't be so. Once reporters understand that one man's loophole is another man's freedom, they'll never use the word again. At least not outside quotation marks.

http://www.slate.com/id/2170985/

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

yet the question remains - is it ethical to accept donations for two different campaigns when one will obviously negate the other? i'm sorry, i can't accept the presidency because i won my district and would rather be a congressman

[one...two...tree 2,762]

yet the question remains - is it ethical to accept donations for two different campaigns when one will obviously negate the other? i'm sorry, i can't accept the presidency because i won my district and would rather be a congressman

It depends on how much the candidate stands to gain from doing so, but I'd agree it doesn't right.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Loaded / emotionally charged language in the news media is nothing new.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Meanwhile - this is a 'great' use of webspace.

Jordan decides on daughter's name

In other words - Ditzy old tart and has-been 90's popstar pick ridiculous and equally ditzy name for their newborn baby - Princess Tiaamii.

"We've put an accent over the first A to make it more exotic and two Is at the end just to make it look a bit different," Jordan told OK! magazine.

Two i's actually changes the pronunciation, phonetically speaking. Not that they would know that.

Edited July 25, 2007 by Number 6

[Heracles 417]

Meanwhile - this is a 'great' use of webspace.

Jordan decides on daughter's name

In other words - Ditzy old tart and has-been 90's popstar pick ridiculous and equally ditzy name for their newborn baby - Princess Tiaamii.

"We've put an accent over the first A to make it more exotic and two Is at the end just to make it look a bit different," Jordan told OK! magazine.

Two i's actually changes the pronunciation, phonetically speaking. Not that they would know that.

I saw them on TV the other day. Peter was a 'has been' down under. Why does anyone give ###### about them? Especially that houchie tarty girl he is married too.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Meanwhile - this is a 'great' use of webspace.

Jordan decides on daughter's name

In other words - Ditzy old tart and has-been 90's popstar pick ridiculous and equally ditzy name for their newborn baby - Princess Tiaamii.

"We've put an accent over the first A to make it more exotic and two Is at the end just to make it look a bit different," Jordan told OK! magazine.

Two i's actually changes the pronunciation, phonetically speaking. Not that they would know that.

dammit...we were going to do the exact same thing.

Seriously though, there is this desire by many modern parents that want to give their child a name that isn't ordinary or too common...but making it too unique is also bad, IMO.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Seriously though, there is this desire by many modern parents that want to give their child a name that isn't ordinary or too common...but making it too unique is also bad, IMO.

Especially when given voice in a chavesque 'cat strangling' Essex accent.

"Chiaarmy!"

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