Opinion: Opinion L.A. unpacked: Readers deconstruct our linguistic signifiers
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We start the new Mailbag with two letters that continue the tradition of finding revanchist-counter-revolutionary-kapitalist-rentier assumptions lurking behind the language choices of the L.A. Times. Do these unravelings of our underlying mythologies reveal the unconscious bias of the Times, heightened sensitivity among readers, creeping carelessness with language, or something else? I’m just happy that people are reading carefully.
Replying to Megan McArdle and Ezra Klein’s Campaign ’08 Dust-Up, a reader in the Twin Cities detects the shadowy hand of the racetrack lobby:
Editor: Regarding ‘Obamcainia’ you write: ‘Megan McArdle discusses the McCain-Obama horserace with Ezra Klein.’ Well I’ve got news for you. It isn’t a horserace. And the fact that you and most other media outlets view and report it as such, is the primary reason why the political process has so tragically devolved in America. BTW, how’s circulation?Lowest Regards,Mark A TarnowskiMinneapolis, MN
And from scenic Fort Myers, Florida, a language consultant has some hard words for Allen Jones’ recent Blowback ‘Let nonviolent prisoners out.’
‘Building beds for the mentally ill is a fine goal’ sounds more like a surrealist film than journalism. There is a tinge of Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ in it. Dali, Ernst. DeChirico, Bosch could probably have painted it well. You transferred two metaphors to journalism that are not at home there, ‘building beds,’ a euphemism of state bureaucracies, and ‘the’ mentally ill, an alley prejudice, the equivalent of ‘the’ Jews in Mel’s drunk mouth. The transfer is jarring. Can you tell me what you were trying to paint with those words? Harold A. MaioAdvisory BoardAmerican Journal of Psychiatric RehabilitationBoard MemberPartners in CrisisFormer Consulting EditorPsychiatric Rehabilitation JournalBoston UniversityLanguage ConsultantUPENN Collaborative on Community Integration of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities
We’ll be back with more biased framing.