one of a pair of traditional Christian icons of brotherly love.
CYA: acronym:
(Cover Your Ass) Prime Directive for the starship Bureaucracy.
Caduceus: n.:
a winged wand wrapped with snakes, traditionally the symbol of
the medical profession, in recognition of the historical importance
of snake oil to medicine.
Cain: proper name:
one of a pair of traditional Christian icons of brotherly love.
Cajun: adj.:
pertaining to a cuisine and a culture which, like their French
antecedents, are considerably spicier than those of their Anglo
neighbors.
Calcium: n.:
miracle nostrum of the 80's.
The fad is so strong that calcium is touted as an additive to
breakfast cereals, which are intended to by eaten covered with
milk, the recommended primary source of the mineral.
Californicate: v.t.:
develop: cut all the trees, subdivide, pave and plant with houses
that are "all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the
same." [as Malvina Reynolds noted]
Calumny: n.:
criticism, by an enemy.
Camera: n.:
the idol of the All-Seeing Eye, before which protestors perform
and politicians posture. The primary agent of our Warholian 15
minutes of fame.
Campaign: v.i.:
place oneself on display for auction; advertise for buyers.
Campaign rhetoric: n.:
the candidates' attempt to ease the plight of the American farmer
by supplying free fertilizer.
Can: n.:
bathroom; toilet.
Can: v.t.:
discharge unceremoniously; fire without notice.
Canape: n.:
personification of the haut dictum "don't eat with your mouth full."
Cancer: n.:
immortality, cell-by-cell, without let or hindrance.
Cannibal: n.:
food faddist who is convinced he has discovered a food that
contains all the nutrients necessary for good health.
One who wants to be a man and believes the dictum "you are what
you eat."
Can't: v.i.:
don't want to.
Capital: n.:
money. From the latin for head; so called because of the
relationship between money and power: cf. "The Golden Rule"
Capital Punishment: n.:
the conservative's prescription for the disease of recidivism.
Capitol: n.:
from the latin caput (head); the seat of government. The
destination of much of the capital in a politico-economic system:
cf. "The buck stops here."
Where reporters would go to get their information "from the
horse's mouth"; modern political practice has turned that all
around.
Capitol Hill: proper name:
capital hill.
Capitol punishment: n.:
for individuals, it comes due on the 15th of April.
Capitol Steps: n.:
the venue where Caesar met his fate and the one where politicians
have their true faces shown to their constituents.
Capracorn: n.:
soul food for Middle America.
Caput: adj.:
from the latin for head; dead, finished, destroyed.
The usage may derive from observation of the Imperial Executioner or headsman.
It may also derive from experience of the functioning of the Capitol, q.v., or of capital, q.v.
Car: n.:
If a man's home is his castle, then the car is his fortress.
Carbon dioxide: n.:
Mother Nature's thermal blanket.
Carbon monoxide: n.:
dinosaurs' revenge.
Card-carrying: adj.:
not ashamed to admit affiliation, but not so insecure about it as to
have to wear it on the sleeve.
Cardinal: n.:
senator of the Roman Catholic church; a priest and customarily
celibate. Not to be confused with Roman Catholic senators, who
are not customarily celibate, especially when from New England.
Cart: n.:
fabulous horse precursor.
Carte blanche: n.:
sigil of the illiterate protester.
Cartoon: n.:
popular art;
often, the only element of a newspaper of interest to
the intellectual, on most days. The cartoon bears a similar relation
to the caricature as the ballad to the etude.
Casino: n.:
modern temple to the twin icons of modern culture: Greed and Credulity;
architectural monument to innumeracy.
Cassandra: proper name:
Greek prophetess who had the misfortune always to be correct,
thereby eliminating her entertainment value.
Castrating woman: n.:
treble-maker.
Casus belli: n phrase:
"Why we fight."
Catastrophic health care: n.:
the kind where lawyers are involved, or where accountants make
up the treatment rules.
Catamite: n.:
Greek for choir boy.
Catholic: adj.:
all-encompassing; universal.
Named after the church in recognition of their view on the range of your behavior over which they should be empowered.
Cato: proper name:
name of the Green Hornet's faithful Japanese (Filipino, after 1942) houseboy.
Not to be confused with Kato . . . .
Caucus: n.:
cabal.
Cause and Effect: n.:
a chance relationship susceptible to statistical analysis.
Caution: n.:
a defining difference between the truly adept professional and the
fierily enthusiastic amateur.
The symbols of caution are generally presented in yellow, in deference to the easily deflated ego of the amateur.
Cease fire: n.:
time appointed to hold your fire, unless a really good target
appears; time out to reload.
Cedar: n.:
a tree that does in bugs faster than they can do it in.
Cedars of Lebanon: n.:
ancient species harvested to extinction to provide coffins for Beirut.
Celibacy: n.:
safe sex, practiced by (ideal) priests, eunuchs, the right-wing
version of teenagers, and old married couples.
Cellular phone: n.:
the reason that you can't get away from the office by getting out of
the office.
Censor: n.:
an assassin who targets the mind, leaving the body free to toil. He
does it with smoke, since, if he has a conscience, he can't go
around looking into mirrors.
a patriot who believes in life, (limited) liberty and the flight from
happiness. A few years ago, we could have said "(right-to-) life . .
.", but censorship from the Left, once the bastion of free speech,
has become rampant and even more insidious than the traditional
blue-pencilling.
Censorship: n.:
the Comstock load: an attempt to throttle the mind and spirit of
the public into as narrow a scope as those of the censor.
Censure: v.t.:
screen with fragrant, non-irritating smoke. The formal equivalent of the traditional "twenty lashes with a wet noodle."
Certificate: n.:
a piece of paper widely sought in lieu of actual ability.
Chain reaction: n.:
a term used in physics to refer to an expansion that happens in the
same way as the spread of gossip.
Champagne: n.:
Beverage of Champions. Arguably the best thing ever to come
from the French Catholic church, though it must be said that
Chartreuse has much to recommend it for that title.
Character: n.:
a rare attribute of politicians at the best of times, it has become a
critical deficiency of Democrats, according to Republican
campaign rhetoric.
Character assassination: n.:
the lingua franca of tabloid "journalism" and political
campaigning.
Charisma: n.:
polite word for chutzpah in a political figure.
Charity: n.:
one of the triune muse of success: Faith provides the steadfastness
to carry us through when times look bleak; Hope was the guiding
light that led us first into the morass; Charity assuages our
conscience for the things we had to do to win through.
Chartreuse: n.:
distillation of the essence of an alpine meadow at midsummer;
arguably the greatest contribution of the Roman Catholic church
toward the general benefit of civilization. Cf. Champagne.
Chastity: n.:
a word that was upgraded from a lifestyle to a personal name in
the Swinging Sixties.
Cheney: proper name:
the candidate with a thousand faces, this being seen as the ideal
qualification for running for elected office.
Cherubic: adj.:
chubby.
Chic: adj.:
imitative of a different socioeconomic class or ethnos.
To be considered chic, the wealthy affect the denims and leathers
of the lower classes and the weatherbeaten complexion of the
outdoor worker; the proletariate wear imitations of the formal
dress of the aristocracy; educated professionals buy CB radios so
they can pretend to be ignorant truckers; college students get
internet accounts so they can act like underdisciplined third
graders — or trial attorneys — in public discussions.
Chicane: n.:
a twist or kink added to a race course to impede the normal flow of
racing traffic and prevent the drivers from completing the race too
soon, reducing the opportunity for commercials.
Chicanery: n.:
the practice of law.
Chilling effect: n.:
a hindrance to the side I support (or am beholden to); as contrasted
with deterrence, which is a hindrance to the other side.
Chinatown: n.:
ethnic district in several major American cities; typically the
location of Democratic National Committee headquarters.
Chocolate: n.:
in its Latin name, God-food. Most enthusiasts will go along with that.
If sex is the favorite substitute for love, chocolate has become the favorite substitute for sex.
Cholesterol: n.:
a succubus for the Nineties.
Christ: proper name:
a prophet whose miraculous life among them managed to escape
the notice of the most compulsive record keepers before the Third
Reich.
Christian: n.:
one who follows the teachings of the New Testament so long as
they are not too inconvenient or restrictive.
Literally, "anointed one," in honor of the status as a member of the
Great Unwashed.
Christian Coalition: proper name:
a group seemingly dedicated to proving Justice Black's
observation that "a union of government and religion tends to
destroy government and to degrade religion."
Christian Science: n.:
solipsism sanctified.
Christmas: n.:
the day when we celebrate the birth of the Jewish Son of God with
an orgy of buying and indebtedness. Conspiracy theorists note
that the stores to which we indebt ourselves are disproportionately
owned by Jews.
Church: n.:
an institution for separating the poor from their goods by
promising to repay after there is no further use for them.
The observation that a man is accepted into a church for what he
believes and turned out for what he knows is attributed to Twain.
Fundamentalists will consider membership in their particular branch to be hellfire insurance.
Cigar: n.:
fashionable mouth toy that, at its best, looks like a Cuban phallus
and smells like a diaper pail.
Circle jerk: n.:
member of the Inner Circle.
Circular reasoning: n.:
logic designed to leave no loose ends.
Circumstances beyond our control: phrase:
something happened we didn't plan on.
Civics: n.:
the traditional name for the high-school course where they teach
the fairy tale version of government.
Civil disobedience: n.:
casual dress, cocktails and canapes after the rally; RSVP; don't do
anything disgusting in front of the cameras.
Note: we'll go home early if the cameras don't show up.
Civil rights: n.:
privileges properly reserved for the elite, which have been usurped
by the Liberals to be squandered on everyone.
A sort of a mild oxymoron, since very few of these rights were ever gained by the
exercise of civility.
Civil servant: n.:
a functionary who typically delivers neither civility nor service.
Civilized: adj.:
decadent.
Class system: n.:
fossilized social stratification. It has been observed that America
has no class system, by which it is usually meant that America
systematically has no class. This error of perception may be related
to the observation that the bulk of the upper classes seem so utterly
classless.
Classical: adj.:
in the tradition of the authors, artists or composers that you were
required to study in school.
Classified: adj.:
potentially embarassing to the administration, or to any of the last thirty.
Classless society: n.:
one which derives its values from TV programming.
Clever: adj.:
knowing much, as contrasted with shrewd: knowing many.
Cloning: n.:
Man's high-tech way of promoting stagnation in the gene pool;
the supreme experimental test of the Nature vs. Nurture
controversy.
Closed mind: n.:
one which obdurately refuses to be brought around to my way of thinking.
One which declines to be lured away from my way of thinking is
not closed, merely perseverant.
Closet: n.:
locus of skeletons, gaiety or, if you're Fibber McGee, the contents
of an average salvage yard.
Cock of the walk: n.:
a fellow who struts about as though he thinks he's a foot long.
Cockroach: n.:
a disgusting insect pest with a decided resemblance to certain
members of my opponent's party.
Code: v.t.:
systematically change a message so as to make it unintelligible to
anyone not a party to the method used.
Common usages include references to "computer code" and "Code of Ethics."
Coerce: v.t.:
treat in the same manner as a government, its subjects.
Coffee: n.:
an addictive agent yielding the benefits of cocaine without the
inconvenience of the narcotics squad.
Coiffure: n.:
$200 haircut.
Cola: n.:
a popular, mildly stimulating, slightly addictive soft drink.
COLA: acronym:
a popular, highly addictive additive to government entitlement programs.
Colin: proper name:
an organ of proper and useful, if distateful, functionality,
culminating in an asshole.
Colitis: n.:
a pain in the butt that extends throughout the belly.
Collectible: n.:
something collected or collectable; hence, something overpriced,
faddish, usually either garish or banal, not very useful.
Collective: n.:
special name for a group of a type of entity, as a gaggle of geese, a
flock of sheep, a conspiracy of lawyers . . . .
College: n.:
an institution whereto parents send their children to learn things of
academe that they can't learn in high school and the children go to
learn things of life they daren't learn while living at home.
Color: n.:
an attribute of which you must be careful that it doesn't rub off on
you, but which can't be washed off of you, no matter how diligent
you are.
Color-blind: adj.:
unable to recognize more than one color.
Come and go: phrase:
agenda of the unfaithful spouse; actions of the unsatisying spouse.
Comfort: n.:
the lowest practicably maintainable level of pain.
Comfortably well off: adj phrase:
wealthy beyond the avarice of the common man, if not of the
media star, pro sports player (or his agent) or stock trader.
Commerce: n.:
a modern institution evolved from the mutual exchange of meat
and hides among hunters. The basis has remained unchanged:
skin everything that moves. (with appreciation to David Astor)
Commercial: n.:
pothole in the Road to Entertainment.
Committee: n.:
a group conjoined under rules of procedure for the purpose of
legitimizing the prejudices of its most vociferous members.
Planning committees make plans, budgeting committees make
budgets and morale among the men would be a lot higher if all the
steering committees weren't headed up by women.
There are those who would hold that all committees strive to be
steering committees, especially as regards their opponents.
Commodities trading: n.:
given that "commode" means "toilet", what do you think they're up
to with your money?
Commodore: n.:
undoubtedly, the rank of the Ty-D-Bowl man.
Common: adj.:
pertaining to one who is widely liked, but not by me.
Common enemy: n.:
the root of most friendships between nations and many between
individuals.
Common ground: n.:
the bridge between seemingly disparate interests, as No-Mans'-Land to opposed armies, or the barroom floor to politicians and the journalists who report on them.
Common sense: n.:
a commodity notably absent from Government since their supply
was used up to supply a pamphlet title for Thomas Paine.
It has been observed that the most remarkable thing about
common sense is that it's so uncommon.
Communicable disease: n.:
the variety that it's not polite to talk about.
Communication: n.:
the college course for jocks who can string three words together
without saying "you know."
Communication satellite: n.:
celestial entity to which televangelists pray and offer sacrifice (of
their followers' goods.)
Communal: adj.:
belonging to the community at large, which is to say, for the
exclusive use of the most unscrupulous.
Community: n.:
a mythical affiliation based on a shared visible characteristic; e.g.,
black community, gay community, Jewish community, etc.
A single shared characteristic, however blatant, is not enough to
established shared interests.
Community service: n.:
to a liberal, a phrase connoting civic duty; to a conservative, a
legal obligation, usually a sentence.
Community standards: n.:
the published position of the most vocal conservative minority.
Commute: n.:
the morning ritual wherein we emulate the hamster with his little
wheel.
Commuter airline: n.:
licensed gambling establishment.
Compact: adj.:
medium sized. As compact car, compact disc.
Compelling evidence: n.:
data presented on the point of a bayonet.
Compliment: n.:
a commodity of which it can truly be said that too much is never
enough.
Composure: n.:
if you can keep your head while all around you are losing theirs,
have you stopped to consider that you may be the cause?
Compromised: adj.:
caught with his pants down (or her skirts up.)
Compulsion: n.:
an action which must be done, repetitively, in a certain way and
which cannot be denied or resisted; characteristic of mental illness,
religious observance, or soap-opera watching.
Computer: n.:
angel/devil of the latter twentieth century. A convenient scapegoat
for clerical or human error.
Like fire, the computer is a useful servant and a dangerous master.
The greatest failure of the computer as a servant is that it does
precisely what we tell it to, not what we want it to.
The people who express the greatest fear of computers are those
who never learned to type.
Con man: n.:
consultant with a bogus return address.
Conclusive: adj.:
supporting what I said all along.
Conditioned reflex: n.:
something learned so well as to happen without thought, like a
conservative's getting red in the face on hearing the word
"Communism" or the phrase "welfare mother." The product of
intensive and extensive training.
Condominium: n.:
real estate scheme named for the condom: buy one if you want to
get screwed.
Confidence builder: n.:
dishonest developer.
Confident: adj.:
misinformed.
Conflict: n.:
the offspring of Misunderstanding and of Understanding-only-too-well.
Conflict of interest: n.:
the difference between what the bank pays you to save money and
what they charge you to borrow it back.
Conformity: n.:
the sacrifice we make to cultivate the approbation of those around us.
Confuse: v.t.:
present with more than one choice.
"I've made my decision; don't confuse me with facts."
Congressional hearing: n.:
a collective campaign appearance by the incumbents.
Congressional Record: n.:
"A tale . . . full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The "official version," a work of official fiction wherein your
congressman may have his vote recorded the way he thinks you
want to see it, rather than the way it was cast.
Conjugal: adj.:
pertaining to marriage.
Evaluated in the pair of popular expressions "conjugal bliss" and
"ignorance is bliss."
Conjugate: n.:
reserved media name for the first scandal in Washington involving
bigamy or other serious marital anomalies (adultery, being so
widespread, does not qualify.)
Connoisseur: n.:
one guided by his tastes rather than his appetites.
Conscience: n.:
the "still, small voice" that intends to make sure you don't enjoy
having a good time. It is most easily silenced by the application of
money, though it can be anesthetized with alcohol, or sometimes,
dinner and a show or an evening out dancing.
When cited as the motivation for an action ("The senator voted his
conscience"), it is usually just a euphemism for "pocketbook."
Conscientious: adj.:
either naive or hyperactive.
Consensus: n.:
the speaker's opinion, attributed to a group. This gives an air of
authority and a chance to diffuse the blame.
Consequences: n.:
unplanned outcomes: when you drain the swamp, the alligators
are certainly going to go somewhere.
Conservative court: n.:
one which dares to curtail the inalienable right of special interest
groups to sue for having their feelings hurt.
Consistency: n.:
Doctrinairism.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored
by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. [Emerson]
Conspicuous: adj.:
as the nail that sticks up; antonym of camouflaged
Conspicuous consumption: n.:
a cult widely adopted by the Boomers, based on a doctrine first
propounded by the prophet Veblen.
Conspiracy: n.:
a group of people who agree with each other, but not with me.
Conspiracy theorist: n.:
one who belongs to a coterie who believe that the Government
can't do anything well, except to maintain a huge, usually criminal,
enterprise out of sight of the public — excepting, of course, the
theorist and his clique.
Constituent: n.:
campaign contributor.
Constructionist: n.:
one who subscribes to a philosophy that advocates addressing all
social problems by the construction of prisons.
Consultant: n.:
expert hired to come into a situation and tell you:
Consumer: n.:
the little, greed-fueled engine that drives the economy, to the
cleaners.
Consumer advocacy: n.:
the nadir of public-service professions.
Consumption: n.:
a wasting and usually fatal disease, once of the lungs, now of the
economy.
Contempt: n.:
a delicate emotion elicited by the contemplation of those of less
value than ourselves; hence, contempt of court, contempt of Congress.
Contemptible: adj.:
admitted to the bar.
Contract: v.i.:
become smaller, especially with chilling.
Contract: n.:
binding agreement to assassination or murder;
cf. "Contract with America."
"Contract With America": phrase:
contract on poor Americans.
Contraception: n.:
in the eyes of the right, an attempt to enjoy the entertainment
without having to pay for the ticket.
Contradiction: n.:
the soul of spirited argument, if, and only if, you are a Monty
Python fan.
Contrarian: n.:
a stock market player who goes against the mood of the market,
i.e., one who buys when the news on the economy is good.
Contrite: adj.:
caught, and trying to evade punishment.
Convenience: n.:
Euphemese for toilet.
Conventional: adj.:
after the style of my parents or grandparents.
Conventional wisdom: n.;
polite name for old wives' tales.
Conversation: n.:
at once the deepest foundation and highest pinnacle of civilization.
Conviction: n.:
that property that distinguishes the professional politician from the
amateur.
Cooperative: adj.:
willing to do things my way.
Corpulent: adj.:
well advanced in one's progress toward becoming a corpse.
Corruption: n.:
any lubrication of the wheels of government which does not result
in the oiling of my pockets.
Cosa Nostra: proper name:
Italian for "Our House", used as a term of affection for the House
of Representatives, in recognition of their ongoing publicity and
price-support campaigns.
Cosmetic surgery: n.:
what some women require to remove their makeup.
Cost: n.:
an economic property of an item or service that bears a relation to
the price only in high-school civics courses.
Couch potato: n.:
home-grown pseudo-vegetable. Herblock might characterize this
as the TVegetable.
Counter terrorism: n.:
$3.00 a cup for coffee.
Counterfeit goods: n.:
plagiarism in the market place.
Counterfeiter: n.:
one who has applied private-sector initiative to the creation of
financial resources.
Courage: n.:
a personal quality claimed by cowards and denied by heroes.
Courage of his convictions: n phrase:
Court: n.:
an institution wherein laws are altered to suit the prejudices of the judge.
Court: v.t.:
attempt to seduce. Hence, the name of the place where lawyers practice.
Court house: n.:
the scene of many of the most egregious crimes in the community.
Court order: n.:
rubber stamp for police invasion; automatic indemnification of unfounded accusations.
Well applied, the first and finest defense against the depredations
of tyrants, or the tyranny of the majority; well applied . . . .
Courtesy: n.:
a medieval concept now out of favor, like slavery, manifest
destiny, or the divine right of kings.
Unlike the others, it has not reappeared under a different name.
Couture: n.:
the business of conspicuous obsolescence.
Cow: n.:
the totem animal of Gary Larson.
Coward: n.:
a poltroon who turns away from dangers we claim we would have faced.
Cowardice: n.:
the best insurance against temptation. Frequently confused with
self control, especially by those who lack the latter.
Coy: adj.:
shy by artifice, rather than by nature, reminiscent of the
complexions of those who seek the label.
Coyness: n.:
the chief identifying characteristic of the unannounced candidate.
Coyote: n.:
the vaudevillain of the cartoon animal world; straight man to
sheepdogs, rabbits and roadrunners.
Crap: n.:
the primary ingredient of life. The notorious optimist Theodore
Sturgeon estimated the contribution as being 90%.
Crapulent: adj.:
drunk or hung over.
The origins of the term are related to the form -ulent, "full of".
Compare: fraudulent, full of fraud; corpulent, full of body; it
would appear to be a comment on the personality of the chronic
heavy drinker.
Creativity: n.:
the ability to find sufficiently obscure sources.
Credibility: n.:
a vestigial organ which incisive reportage has removed from the body politic.
Credit card: n.:
I'm sorry, but I can't top Bayan's "passport to the valley of the shadow of debt."
The modern method of indenture.
Credulity: n.:
the outstanding intellectual trait of the consumer, the voter or the devout.
Crimea: n.:
location of a river made famous by Julie London.
Crisis in Education: n.:
a failure in the school system exemplified in an inability to spell
even common four-letter words, e.g. "lawyer", "Shiite."
Crisis management: n.:
the crucial ability to creat crises at need; the only form of
production in which most managers exhibit any proficiency.
Critic: n.:
one whose inability to perform empowers his knowledge of how
performance should be done.
Criticism: n.:
insightful evaluation of obvious deficiencies, if by me;
wrongheaded attempts at character assassination, if of me.
Cross: adj.:
ill-tempered; angry.
Cross: v.t.:
betray.
Cross: n.:
Cross dressing: n.:
wearing basketball shoes to do your aerobics.
Cross training: n.:
a form of athletic endeavor named for the disposition of its
practitioners when they are interrupted.
Cross-functional: adj.:
disfunctional in more than one arena.
Cuba: proper n.:
Caribbean stalking horse for the American political system.
The Miami Mafia hate it because the current government threw out
theirs and spoiled their little party; the Republicans hate it because
a) it's Communist (!) and b) it's poor, with no obvious resources
for their corporate sponsors to exploit; the Democrats hate it
because a) its human rights record is atrocious and b) they've
never forgiven Castro for embarassing Kennedy at the Bay of Pigs.
Cul-de-sac: n.:
dead end street in an upscale neighborhood.
Culpability: n.:
the defining character of an incumbent.
Culprit: n.:
the accused one.
Cult: n.:
a religious sect younger than I am.
Curator: n.:
a professional collector who is not characterized by greed and
secretiveness. Also, resident expert, display inventor, teacher in
absentia and specialist librarian.
Curiosity: n.:
traditional felicide.
Curmudgeon: n.:
one who has stricken all artificial sweeteners from his literary diet.
Curriculum: n.:
the mold into which young minds are to be cast. Generally
patterned on the neuroses of the loudest local pressure group.
Cursor: n.:
a common user interface named in honor of the reaction it
routinely elicits.
Custom: n.:
the self-enforcing law of the marketplace. Generally confused
with morality or natural law by the obtuse or the self-interested.
Customer service: n.:
a profession dedicated to the memory of Polly Adler.
Cute: adj.:
able to elicit that instinctive inhibition which allows us to tolerate
the young of the species.
Cyanide: n.:
culinary staple of mystery writers everywhere.
Cybil: proper name:
attendant to ovine domesticated cattle.
Cynic: n.:
a vessel in whom the milk of human kindness has been curdled.
Cynicism: n.:
an allergy to rose-colored glasses; a deficiency of the vision that
allows one to see things as they are, rather than as they are
portrayed in the media.