Strange Brew, Non Sequitur

[Occhidiangela]

The statements may imply different reasoning, but the end result is still the same. He doesn't want to comment.

Here's my point. (And, again, i'm not arguing that his statement isn't valid) There are probably thousands upon thousands of ways to express what he wanted to say that don't use terms with racist connotations. You yourself just stated three of them. It's his job to artfully maneuver between them. As far as i'm concerened, the fact that he didn't choose one of the inumerable and, in many cases, much simpler ways of expressing his response was a very amusing failure at his primary responsibility. but a failure nonetheless.

1. Good of you to think you know the press sec's job better than he does, but then, I too am a bit of an art critic in that regard. I must agree that criticism isn't out of place, but I disagree with your call for needless censorship. The "niggardly" remark a few years back was even funnier: it revealed how undereducated the audience was, and what an overblown wordsmith (used a fancy word when a simpler one would do) the speaker was. Two jokes, at others' expense, for the price of one. That's a win win, no matter how I slice it.
2. Snow's metaphor exactly captured the idea he was trying to convey.
3. Consider another part of Snow's job: the art of the smokescreen. If people pay attention to one of his gaffes, then less air time is devoted to the gaffes of his boss, and attention is drawn to him, a front man, and less light is shone on . . . anything that actually matters. Issues of substance. Granted, I don't think he intended to draw attention to himself -- I think he was trying to be oh so clever in his concise metaphors, like many wordsmiths are -- but the "sh**screen" function his job holds was faithfully exercised.

4. On further review, I was more caustic than necessary with that "long walk / short pier" post to you. I apologize to you for having activated the slvl 30 "Venom" skill when slvl 1 "Psychic Hammer" was what the situation called for. ;)

Occhi