Words Should Have Meaning: The Maddow Edition

At this point, no one should be surprised that Dick Cheney, along with other movement conservatives, are spouting ridiculous accusations about the Obama Administration's response to the Underpants Bomber. Rachel Maddow (video below) knocks down each false accusation, demonstrating that the Bush Administration did the same or worse. But the only reason these political sociopaths do this is because they can get away with it. The traditional media, despite its saving grace that it isn't composed of bloggers[/snark], is actually providing misinformation by conveying to its consumers that Obama's response was worse than the Cheney Administration's, even though that is not true.

That is really bad product. If you're in the words business, words should have meaning, not serve as Pavlovian stimuli. And it hurts the country (excerpt of transcript from here):

Again, my friends and colleagues in the media have two choices in covering this. You can just copy down what the Republicans and Vice President Cheney are saying, and click "send," call it journalism, or you can actually fact-check those comments and put them into context. Your choice. It's your country.

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What a badass.

Meaning hasn't just been sucked dry from words -- it's been stuffed into body bags and thrown onto the bed of a peeling two-tone Ford Fairlaine pickup truck (rust-eaten except for the right-front primer-gray fender) approaching 120 MPH on bald tires and worn brakes, a faded "HOW AM I DRIVING? CALL 1-800-F**KYOU" bumper sticker slapped on the back.