Something Skwuwee
First, let me say that title shown above is only partially meant as homage to Elmer Fudd (“There’s something very skwuwee around here!”). As some of you will recall, the cartoon character Mr. Elmer Fudd chronically mispronounced the term “screwy” as “skwuwee”! Although not appreciated at the time, Mr. Fudd’s mispronunciation of “screw” and “screwy” as “skwuw” and “skwuwee” leads us to a double entendre wherein “skwuwee” is the condition (something screwy) and “skwuw” is the cause! The verb screw is often understood to mean “twisting something to alter its’ appearance”. “Spin” would, perhaps, be a more modern term for the same thing. However, no matter WHAT we call it, “screw” is alive and well in this Presidential season.
It can be seen and heard just about every single day, in the patently, blatantly and even brazenly biased coverage of the campaign of Mr. Donald Trump. The method is painfully clear: Take an event, ANY event, and present it is such a fashion as to reflect negatively, in one way or another, on Mr. Trump and his campaign. Examples:
Several days ago Mr. Trump decided, wisely I believe, to put an end to the “birther” issue that had involved Mr. Barack Obama, during the 2008 campaign. Mr. Trump was right in doing so, as Mr. Obama was NOT Mr. Trump’s opponent in this race, and spending any more time on the issue now would simply be counterproductive. So in response to barbed questions on this point, Mr. Trump conceded the point: “Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.” Instead of taking this pronouncement as the savvy and even conciliatory response that it was, the media tried to portray it as “waffling”, or political opportunism, or an “insult” or some other pejorative label. By and large, I don’t think this strategy worked, but it was quite definitely “skwuwee!”
More dramatically, in the face of a single weekend that featured two bombings in the New York Tristate area, together with multiple jihadi stabbings in Minnesota, the media chose to focus, not on these horrific acts of terrorism, but instead on whether or not Mr. Trump was remiss in concluding prematurely that the NY blast was a bomb! THAT was their focus! A blatant attempt to skew a news story so as to reflect unfavorably on Mr. Trump. Or try to. Very “skwuwee” indeed!
There are MANY more examples, that I could bring up. However, as it is late, I’ll conclude, instead with a joke:
Mr. Trump and the Pope are both on a boat. A gust of wind blows the Pontiff’s hat onto the water. Mr. Trump promptly gets up, walks on water, and returns the hat to the amazed Pope. Next day’s headline: MR. TRUMP CAN’T EVEN SWIM!”