Who you callin’ [reporters]?
An interesting side show for the inauguration is the unfortunate flubbing of the oath that caused President Obama to have to retake the oath in the oval office. This, of course, leads to more controversy (he didn’t use a Bible, says Drudge.)
But there’s something even more controversial about the second administration of the oath of office. After taking the oath, Obama, joking with the press said, “The bad news for the [reporters] is there’s 12 more balls,” referring, of course, to the horror of another dozen fancy parties–oh the torture.
But what jumped out to me, was the use of the bracketed “[reporters]” by the pool reporter. This structure, of course, is used to substitute a word that made sense in context, but not in the written report. Note, that Obama could not have said “them”, referring to the reporters, because nobody says “the them”, and the pool reporter would have said “[the reporters]” not “the [reporters].”
This all begs the question, what did Obama call the press? Here are a few [un]founded guesstimates:
- the lapdogs
- the loyal fans
- the jerks (taking a page from McCain)
- the pet monkies
- the sweeties
- the unwashed masses
The possibilities are endless!