George Stephanopoulos gets our first PIN award given to the main stream media

Things got a little heated when Stephanopoulos drilled Obama on the meaning of the word tax.  President Obama referred to “this campaign to pass health care reform” in a surprisingly candid moment of truth.  As many have long suspected, Barack Obama is still in campaign mode.  Unlike Obama, I’m quite familiar with Merriam-Webster and I don’t get offended when someone uses that as a reference to verify the meaning of a word.  Campaign is defined, in case Mr. Obama is wondering, as “a connected series of operations designed to bring about a particular result.”  This applies to his concerted effort to blast the Sunday talk show circuit today, as well as his flowery stump speeches he’s given on the issue.

PIN is glad to see that there is still some, however minute, amount of journalistic integrity left in the main stream media.  We would like to PIN an award on George Stephanopoulos for standing his ground.

“I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary: ‘Tax, a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes…’”

We also would like to highlight an interesting quote by our president, in response to Mr. Stephanopoulos’ reference to an actual definition of a word, “the fact that you looked up…the definition shows that you’re stretching a little bit.”  Really Mr. President?  Perhaps you should make better use of a dictionary in your leisure time, and your critics won’t have so much room to accuse you of saying one thing, and meaning another.  As you said, Mr. President, “[Y]ou–you can’t just make up that language…”  To clarify, you don’t get to assign new meanings to existing words.  Those who would take your words at face value and then call you on it are not out to get you, they’re just actually paying attention what you say.

After a few moments of consideration, we thought that the president might like to have a little further proof that Stephanopoulos is not “stretching.”  Quoting Obama’s latest rival, the dictionary:

• Main Entry: def·i·ni·tion
• Pronunciation: \ˌde-fə-ˈni-shən\
• Function: noun
• Etymology: Middle English diffinicioun, from Anglo-French, from Latin definition-, definitio, from definire
• Date: 14th century

a : a statement expressing the essential nature of something b : a statement of the meaning of a word or word group or a sign or symbol <dictionary definitions>

Other articles of interest;

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Paterson planning 2010 run, ignoring Obama

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