Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Out the window

It’s a busy day in news, so I made the mistake of looking at Talking Points Memo. From a piece by the proprietor, Josh Marshall:

As you’ve likely heard, CNN CEO Chris Licht was fired today, not so much because of that headline-grabbing Atlantic article but because of a string of failures and reverses which might have simmered and percolated for a few months longer if a minor-defenestratory masterpiece had not wrapped them together with a bow in a way that was impossible to ignore.
A string that might have simmered and percolated, save that a masterpiece wrapped them together with a unignorable bow and . . . also threw them out the window?

I’m not sure what “minor-defenestratory” might even mean: throwing someone out a first-floor window? I’m more deeply confused about how much credit Marshall is giving the Atlantic article: Licht was fired not because of the article but because the article made all his failures known?

But I refuse to take the time to try to improve Marshall’s sentence, which I think would make, as is, a fine sixth exhibit in George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.”

comments: 2

Fresca said...

Lol! I would like to see a picture of that string wrapped in a bow thrown out a first-floor window. Something Nancy might do?

Michael Leddy said...

I think even Olivia Jaimes would have a tough time getting the world of Josh Marshall on paper. I see broken pencils abounding. : )