An abundance of tired cliches
Love this observation from the Capital Cloak blog:
Professional athletes and government intelligence officials have at least one shared characteristic: Both give a lot of media interviews, but despite an abundance of words spoken neither offers anything beyond tired clichés. I often wonder why journalists bother conducting such interviews. Rarely will a professional athlete state anything more substantive than “we just take each game one at a time,” or “we just need to play hard.” Likewise, intelligence officials, by necessity, rarely provide any statements more enlightening than “al-Qaeda wants to kill Americans,” or “It’s not IF we will be hit again, it is WHEN.” Both of those canned intelligence answers are of course true, but journalists hardly needed to interview an intelligence expert to confirm their veracity.
The posting goes on to give some great examples from an interview with National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) chief, Retired Vice Admiral John Scott Redd.
Posted: September 23rd, 2007 under Asking Questions, Political Tips.