I came back from vacation raring to gripe about how we in the press conveniently overlook significant details on these catchy little stories we go bonkers over.
Details like the roar of the crowd in the Des Moines ballroom where Howard Dean screamed his immortal Scream. Details like a full characterization of the journalist Teresa Heinz Kerry told to “shove it.” Then, I discovered just how far behind the curve a blissful few days in the West Virginia mountains can leave you. See, for example, this and this.
Still, I want to add my two bits: When I Googled “Teresa Heinz Kerry” and “shove it,” I saw twice as many references to the episode that do NOT mention Richard Mellon Scaife (who employs the journalist she told to “shove it”) as references that do. This significant omission leaves the news consumer with the impression that the object of her remark was just another journalist — albeit perhaps a conservative one –- as opposed to a journalist from a paper with a long and ugly history with Heinz Kerry and her family.
This omission makes it much easier to write pat little didn’t-we-tell-you-she-was-strange headlines such as “Teresa Heinz Kerry Calls for More Civil Tone in Politics, Then Tells Reporter to ‘Shove It'” or “Show and Tell: Teresa Heinz Kerry’s ‘Shove It’ Outburst Is the Latest in String of Outspoken Behavior.”
It’s also worth noting that these handy little omissions cross party lines. When I Googled “Schwarzenegger” and “girlie girls,” I found almost twice as many references to the remark that did NOT mention the phrase’s “Saturday Night Live” origins compared to those that did cite “SNL.”
