Does Rhetoric Enhance Political Debate?
There has been much discussion about the reliability of the press lately. Some see it as too liberal or conservative or with hidden agendas. This little exercise tries to see how the perception comes about. I have chosen two overtly partisan editorials as example. One from the leftist “The Nation” and one from the rightest “National Review”. Both writers are analyzing some factual events while adding their own political spin to the story. As these are editorials or opinion pieces this is entirely appropriate, but it interesting to see how much of this type of perjoritive labeling spills over into other areas. To help make a decision I have marked words in red which seem to me a deliberate attempt to spin the story line. Perhaps this type of rhetoric has become the norm and this is one of the reasons that both sides talk past each other instead of trying to define and resolve the serious problems facing our world today. I may have overlooked some words that you would include as rhetoric
