Every time I hear the MSM use the word "surge" my blood........

[Bonhomme Richard]

wants to boil.
I certainly understand the neo-cons wanting to control the debate by avoiding words like escalate but when the media just goes along it tells me we have a long road to go. It also tells me that the media is still in the pocket of the neo-cons and it is very disheartening.
All I ask is for a little truth.

[napi21]

1. I know! Even my son, who spent16 years in the military, said this AM

that we should just get the hell out of there! We should never have gone into Iraq in the first place! I must admit I was a bit surprised by his comment, because he used to be a Shrub supporter, and always supports the military. He said we need to leave it up to the Iraqi's to fix their country. I told him I believed we owed them some funding to fix what we destroyed, and he agreed, but said we need to let the Iraqi's do it themselves.

Then of course he asked me why I watch TV programs that do nothing but get me all pissed off? I was swearing at my TV AGAIN this AM while watching the Washington Journal!

[Yoda Yada]

2. Has anyone ever looked into the "payola" element of this technique?

When the Republicans decide on a word or phrase that will work for them...it appears EVERYWHERE!. This isn't just reporting the day's story, it is uniformly repeating the same word choices/concepts that someone is knowingly organizing and distributing to every station/reporter on their list. Someone is getting paid for this.....maybe EVERYONE who is willing to do it.

[WiseButAngrySara]

3. What is the significance of the word "surge?" I guess I've

been too busy lately to pay much attention to the nuances of M$M rhetoric....

[annabanana]

5. It's to avoid the word "escalation".. .. . . . . . eom

[WiseButAngrySara]

8. Thanks! I'll start paying attention. ....n/t

[earlybelle]

4. You have the problem pegged. But what can we do about the neocon money and access

that controls our government. It seems so hopeless when the media and all the airways are controlled by the cabal that controls our government and especially our foreign policy. Ordinary citizens must first arm themselves with knowledge about the players...but Americans seem little interested in knowledge and truth of any kind. I fear deeply for all humanity.

[wryter2000]

14. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[Yoda Yada]

6. They use euphemisms...

The word "escalate" does not set well with this admininstration, so they use the word "surge". It sounds less aggressive. When Bush was trying to get out of his "stay the course" debacle (refusing to say that he would change course) they decided to say "adapt for victory"...it sounded better to them and they knew many people would not realize that it was a euphemism for "change course."

My concern is that once they decide on the phrase....within the same day.....EVERYONE has been told (paid?) to use it.

[MindMatter]

7. Thanks for reporting this

Otherwise nobody would have ever known. The "MSM" has become completely irrelevant. The common person never did watch the "news" shows. The only people who did pay attention to them were those most active on the left and right. The righties all watch Fox now and anybody with any brains on the left is getting the news from more reliable sources on the Internet. it is really a sad state of affairs when the unmanaged Internet is 100 times more useful than the organizations that think they are in the news business.

The parroting of the term "surge" is just as disgusting as all the other words-of-the-week that these sycophants parrot for this administration. That seems to be the going price for a seat on Air Force One.

But in the end, to have a "surge", you must have some "surgers", and we don't have any, so the whole thing is moot. Unless there is a draft, there ain't gonna be any "surge".

[Bonhomme Richard]

9. I can't help but think that the word goes out............

to the media that if that term is used then they will get access for interviews or something. Otherwise, no access. I just don't get it. It is as if a little playbook gets distributed to all the players and on such and such date it goes into effect. One day no one ever used a word like surge in that context and the next day everyone is repeating the phrase. Bizarre......or propaganda at its best.

[Yoda Yada]

11. Again, I think money goes along with that playbook....

If you are going to execute the "plays" ( consistently use THEIR terminology), you (individuals/corporate media) get to keep the money.

[tabasco]

10. The telescreen has decreed it a surge!

Just a temporary surge to deal with the dead-enders.

[terisan]

12. Surgents.....Resurgents

When I hear the newest "new word of the war" I wonder if Bush & Co. are now seeing our troops to be insurgents, outsurgents, resurgents or some other kind of surgents.

[wryter2000]

15. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[gratuitous]

13. And how long does the "surge" last?

After all, this is just a "surge," not an escalation, right? Isn't that what Stupidhead is now proposing? How long does it last? Two months? Five months? A year? Then what? If the bad guys know that the coppers are going to be stepping up patrols for a little while, what do you suppose they will do? Lay low for a while? What happens when all that extra muscle on the street begins to go away? Or is lulled into a sense of security and starts dropping their guard a little bit?

And why doesn't anyone with a notepad listening to this drivel ask any of these questions? I mean, I'm just some guy on the West Coast sitting in my bathrobe with a dial-up modem, not some blow-dried elite reporter making six figures a year. And yet this occurs to me to ask . . .

[salin]

16. sorta slays me that the msm reporters don't call them on this

euphemism. After all - they did resist the ridiculous "homicide bomber" rhetoric.

Yet here we are... again... repeating bushco 'with their carefully chosen words' Almost wish they did take one set of words from Bush at face value... "Fool me once... shame on me... fool me twice... er... won't be fooled again!"

Here is a question that should be uniformly asked.... why is it that this little known - rushed to respond to the ISG report - report... suddenly becomes bushco policy? Could it be that the admin has been shopping for a 'friendly' (to their policies) report - and that this is the only one - in three years - that they could find? Could it be they are embracing an illconceived, "rushed response to the ISG report" - and that is HOW they make serious policy? Gee, could this be yet one more example of dangerous, ignorant cherry picking?

As opposed to the OP's blood boiling... mine, when I hear the phrase and policy, runs cold - as in fear - as in what greater harm will be wraugt.