CNN stuck with descriptions like “some insulting things” and, as John Roberts put it prior to interviewing Jackson, “your statement that you wanted to cut off a certain part of Senator Obama’s anatomy.” (At one point, CNN’s Joe Johns seemed to blame Obama, calling him some kind of crude comment-magnet: “It was another messy moment for Barack Obama who [cue Rev. Wright clip] just seems to attract regrettable off-the-cuff remarks by high-profile people who are quickly forced to go out and take it back.”)
UPDATE III: If you’re a New York Sun reader (hat tip, CJR reader) you are also hopefully an M.D., as the Sun provides the following description of the content of Jackson’s “disparaging remarks:”
Jackson used a crude reference that suggested he would like to perform an orchiectomy on Mr. Obama.
I wonder why the Sun preferred a five-dollar word for castration, which I think is probably closer to what the Rev Jackson had in mind, seeing as he was going after both nuts. In fact, castration seems to me to be more accurate as it entails removing both testicles, while orchiectomy doesn't. I guess the moral of the Sun's story is that one can be too clever by half.
Posted by Trevor Butterworth
on Thu 10 Jul 2008 at 04:23 PM
Liz, I'm disappointed. CJR is published in New York City, where nearly everyone who's a maven on language knows that the proper term and the perfect journalistic euphemism for that certain part of the male amatomy is:
BEHTZIM (pronounced "BAIT-ZIM")
Enough, already!
Posted by JohnQ
on Sat 12 Jul 2008 at 03:01 AM