CT Blue

One of my favorite passages from Alice in Wonderland:

When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”

What brings this to mind?

Seems Steve Doocy, our friend at Fox, has decided he’s the master. As you may have heard:

…Doocy added some words to an Obama quote when he last Thursday claimed he said, “Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” What Obama actually said was, “Somebody gave me an education. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

Some folks might say that Doocy was trying to transform this line, which Obama has been using on and off for years, into a direct, rather than subtle attack on Romney. For reasons mysterious, this business as usual Fox fabrication kicked up a bit of a shitstorm, which is when Doocy showed who was master:

Facing strong criticism, Fox News host Steve Doocy on Tuesday morning corrected a quote by President Obama that he partially fabricated last week, conceding on air that he “did some paraphrasing.”

“Last week President Obama talked about not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. That was interpreted as a big dig at Mitt Romney,” Doocy said toward the end of Fox & Friends. “When I was interviewing Governor Romney on this show I asked him about it. However, I did some paraphrasing that seemed to misquote the president. So to be clear, the president’s exact quote was, ‘I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.’ And I hope that clears up any confusion.”

Note he doesn’t repeat his “paraphrase”. But, that’s incidental, here’s where Doocy out humpties Dumpty.

Paraphrase “A restatement of a text or passage in another form or other words, often to clarify meaning”

That’s the dictionary definition, but Doocy shows it who’s boss. We can only hope that when Doocy follows Humpty’s lead:

`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.’