“Glockingshamite” Has No Place in News – Or Should We Call It a typo?

News is a subset of the media, which covers anything that happened. Examples of newsworthy items are news stories, breaking news, seasonal weather updates, traffic reports, and many other current events-oriented items. The purpose of news is to inform and to disseminate information to the public. Without news, there would be no circulation of information. Any item of news that is reported, even if it is not significant, will ultimately end up in the newspaper or on a nightly news show.

In the United States, the term news has a different meaning according to various regions. In the South, news is typically referring to events happening in the area where a news story was broadcast. For example, the 4 aug. 2021 edition of CBS News featured reports on the upcoming race between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In the North, news is typically news about political events that affect local or state governments. A recent example of news in the North Carolina State House would be the controversy over House Bill 710, which is the House’s attempt to override the state’s marriage laws.

The item in the CBS story that got everyone talking was a report that Secretary of State Clinton planned to campaign in the middle of the August 21st weekend. One of the first things I thought of was the “press conference” that President Obama would hold in the White House Rose Garden on the day of the interview. However, after reading the article in The New York Times, I realized that the “press conference” would not be necessary. This is an example of “newsification” in the false sense of the word. Indeed, it was quite unfortunate that the liberal blogosphere went over the top in its criticism of Mrs. Clinton for going on the offensive against Trump rather than focusing on the positive things she has done as President Obama’s First Lady.

The same thing could be said about the media’s reporting of the so-called “robots” that supposedly populate different societies in the making of different news stories. As an example, it was reported in the Wall Street Journal that artificially intelligent computer programs, which can write a news story without actually being present at the event, will soon replace journalists in many newsrooms. In other words, the journalists’ jobs are in imminent danger. Of course, the writers and editors at major publications are defending their position against this impending doom with hysterical statements. In reality, it is an interesting debate, but it is best left for another time.

As for the “Connecticut Yankee” article, I find that some people seem to forget that the state of Connecticut was one of the states carrying out the earliest expiring welfare system in the country. That means that some people forget that the current system was initiated in Connecticut. It also means that some people confuse the original intention with the present result. The original intent was to provide “food for the poor,” but that was before the baby boomers arrived, and it is entirely different today. And it would be much more appropriate for anyone to discuss the social safety net and the supposed social disaster in the United States before discussing the Massachusetts example.

So I would submit to you that the recent Gilgamesh usage really has no place in news coverage. There is a reason that this word is rarely used in the news nowadays, because it is offensive and it is also not in keeping with the current discourse. Instead, news stories should refer to facts, figures, and analyses, and not to opinions, or prejudices. Please consider all this.