Monday Morning Quote-A-Back: Clash Of The Junketeers

Last week’s column was a prime example of the old cliché of choosing your words carefully. It’s a tactic in journalism (as well as in life) that has been losing steam every day in our sound-bite era. How often do we watch commentators, politicians and those who promise an expert opinion make grandiose statements steeped in excitable or fearsome hyperbole to get casual observers to sit up and listen? If only the media had the stones to ask the tough questions and call these jokers out on their accountability. The only thing better than having a little bit of contradiction lower their level of credibility is to watch their faces crack as they scramble unsuccessfully to back up their conjecture.

When I called out the ever-affable Pete Hammond for calling How To Train Your Dragon “the first great movie of 2010,” some missed the point. In no way was I being critical of the film itself or someone who believes that it was amongst the cream of the crop, but merely questioning how that same someone could put those words together when they had already been quoted as giving equally high praise to ten other films in this very young year. Hammond’s tally is up to 13 this week.