A Bad Frickin’ Word
Not many journalists get to see their stories in the august pages of The Washington Post. Or even in the slightly-less-august web pages of that newspaper’s online version. So Trail Mix was startled over the weekend to stumble upon this post from the Post‘s election blog, called The Trail (couldn’t they have thought of a more creative name involving the word “trail”? Hm…).
The blog post in question is a fairly interesting look at the Edwards campaign’s efforts to manage expectations in Iowa. Even more interesting, at least to this reporter, is the first reader comment. It’s from one George Wilson, of Clemmons, N.C., and it refers directly to a certain story from Saturday’s Winston-Salem Journal. Wilson, apparently, is upset about a quote in the story from an Edwards volunteer, who was playfully venting about caucus-goers who wait until the last minute to make up their minds. From the Journal story:
“There are people that — and they tell me this — will not decide until they go to the caucus because they like everyone coming over to them and trying to woo them,“ Brown said. “In my head, I’m thinking, ‘You’re crazy. Let’s decide and move on. It’s not about sweet-talkin’ ya. It’s about the frickin’ United States of America.‘“
An interesting adjective to describe the United States, to be sure. Wilson, on the Post‘s blog, responded with this:
Its unbelievable enough that someone would use that thin euphenism for the f-word at all in a public quote. It is even more unbelievable that she would use it in reference to this country in a presidential campaign.
Perhaps hardened by too much time in newsrooms, where deadlines usually bring a curse word or three, Trail Mix hardly batted an eye at the quote initially. It sure does impart a certain salty Iowa flavor. Is it slightly off-color? Sure. Is it how stressed-out campaign workers undoubtedly talk? You bet. Is it the next Edwards mini-scandal in the making? Highly doubtful. But Trail Mix is saving the audio tape of the interview, just to be safe. (And for the record, Brown was not frickin’ misquoted.)
