Opinion: Another %$#@&*\ Ticket Replay: How the media handles Blagojevich’s $#&*/=@ language
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For the next several days The Ticket is republishing from time to time some of our favorite items from recent months and weeks. This one appeared here originally on Dec. 12, 2008:
One of the offbeat yet interesting aspects of the fascinating political criminal drama playing out in Chicago nowadays is the incredibly obtuse way the political media feels it must handle the issue of crude language.
Swearing is not confined to politics, of course. But it fits perfectly there. It seems that in the FBI wiretaps of Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the state’s chief executive is heard saying some pretty strong things about many people, including that x#&#!=/er President-elect Barack Obama and his whole >##$*)-+ing team.
Yes, sure, Blagojevich is a steelworkers son who grew up on Chicago’s rugged North Side. But that’s not the only place in the country some people with limited $#&*/=@ vocabularies put $#&*/=@ in front of almost every $#&*/=@ noun. They also say =0&^,<+{ after every *c7@#=] Cubs loss and they shout ‘Hot $@#=!’ after each Bears victory, like last night’s OT win.
As if folks on Obama’s beloved $#&*@ South Side don’t say ~~`%$#&^ when the Sox get swept again in the XX;{\*{- playoffs by those d;\;;#@ in Florida.
If some guy shouts ‘U-o%$#@-!’ at a candidate’s rally, print reporters can’t write ‘U-o%$#@-!’
They must type something like, ‘He shouted an eight-letter barnyard epithet.’ Even then some wussy $#&*/=@ editor will likely delete that. How $#&*/=@ quaint!
Now, these fg9##$6_+ television reporters have another #g\g’;[0 problem. They can’t substitute stupid symbols for bad words on-air. They have to use one of those %%&*^/+@ bleeps.
U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald (top photo), who is one tough @s#-of-a-$%=/(, kept saying ‘bleeping’ as he read some of the @3$&*- governor’s alleged bleeping wiretapped language.
Like Fitzgerald never shouted, ‘$#&*!’ when an accused got off $#&*/=-free.
Who are we $#&*/=@ kidding here? You know =)&%9\ well what every one of these $#&*/=@ euphemisms means. Even if we mix up the symbols in each &#$-*@/ phrase, you can @/-$&#* figure it out.
Same on the (bleeping) TV bleeps. It’s a royal pain in the bleeping %$*. We don’t even allow )%-$ in the Comments section here because that would be $#&*/=@ rude.
And anyone who doesn’t $#&*/=@ like that, can go bleeping bleep. Now watch the $#&*/=@ video below here. It’s (bleeping) hilarious.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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