I had Nightline on, still do in fact, and something struck me. It isn't the first time I've heard it. When Charles Gibson came on and announced that Obama was going to speak to the crowd live he said Obama was going to speak to his "followers." Like I said, I've heard it before but the thing is, I don't think I've ever heard any other candidates supporters referred to as "followers."
Have you ever heard:
Clinton followers?
Romney followers?
McCain followers?
Huckabee followers?
Have you even heard of Paul followers?
What about Nadar followers?
I find that very interesting. Why do you suppose the media refers to "campaigns" and "supporters" when discussing any other candidate but when they refer to Obama supporters they become "followers?" Or, am I mistaken? I'm not an Obama supporter but if I was I'd find that very offensive.
Update: Well, I'll be darned. I did a google search for Clinton followers and got a return of 465,000, McCain, 324,000, Huckabee, 195,000. When did it become common to refer to a candidate's supporter as a "follower?" I don't like it. I don't "follow" political candidates, any of them. I might support some of them. I might like or endorse some of them but I don't "follow" them. Geesh. Is this a new thing this year or did I just fall off a turnip truck? :0
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2 comments:
Well, not to be overly cynical...but the description of "follower" might be very appropriate because most people are going behind a candidate for reasons other than the actual positions on the issues of the candidates.
For every one of us that takes time to be informed there are two that do what they hear a talking head tell them to do.
Jason, that's a good point. I don't have a problem with your point or the way you expressed it at all.
What I have a problem with is the disrespect shown by media who refer to supporters as "followers." It's a matter of respect, also, repeating "followers" over and over, as it turns out our media has done during (at least) this election cycle, could have the effect of public acceptance of such a description without considering the meaning of such a word and words do have meaning.
So, in my own opinion it is highly disrespectful of the voter to refer to him or her as "followers" rather than supporters and could actually serve to perpetuate "following" rather than education, whether it is "appropriate" or not isn't really the point, in my opinion. The point is: It's simply disrespectful.
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