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Date Posted: 03:31:28 10/23/16 Sun
Author: Lesser Angel
Subject: 2016, explained by Beltway

While no one has ever made a case for Shribman as an inspired wordsmith, this may be his single worst column in his 13 year history at the P-G.

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/david-shribman/2016/10/20/David-M-Shribman-A-political-year-of-disruption-and-dismay/stories/201610230077

Yes, every columnist has their own style but it's a stretch to call this "style."

The tortured analogies go well beyond ridiculous. He cites sports ("the two-minute drill against a 'prevent' defense"), in a pitiful try at demonstrating he has a proletarian bent. It's a momentary lapse. Defining the strategies of Clinton and Trump by citing Haydn's "Surprise Symphony" and a quote from the composer explaining why he wrote it is at best, a stretch and at worst, grotesque.

Citing Trump's background as that of "a businessman with a showman's flair" was a well-turned phrase, but his convoluted description of Hillary ("the New England afternoons of her antiwar activism to the commencement morning of her Wellesley education") ruins any chance of getting his point across to most readers.

He also notes a "patina of elitism" altering "the Democratic coalition." David would know about that, wouldn't he?

There could be one benefit. Journalism classes should cite his flowery, overly fancy language and dreadful sentence structure as an example of the wrong way to compose an opinion piece.

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