Rhetorica Update
You’ll notice that I’ve changed the description of this web site under the Rhetorica banner and changed the name of the blog from Press-Politics Journal to Media Ethics and Rhetoric Journal. I’ve also begun making some changes to the blogroll to reflect the changing emphasis of Rhetorica.
Yes, it’s time for a change.
Basically, I’m getting out of the political rhetoric game and getting deeper into the media ethics game with special attention paid to the rhetoric of media ethics.
My reasons are these:
1. This change reflects a much closer fit with my academic research as it has evolved since I arrived at Missouri State University.
2. I’m getting sick and tired of political punditry and reporting.
To put a finer point on #2: I think the coverage of politics by the mainstream news media in the United States is hopelessly broken.
You might be saying to yourself: Hey, wait a minute! What about the primary purpose of journalism, which is an ethic? How can you cover media ethics and not deal with politics?
I will continue to critique the news media using the primary purpose as one of my guides. What I will not be doing is trying to find ways for the news media to do a better job of covering politics in terms of craft.
I’m still working through how this is going to play out on Rhetorica. The most immediate thing you’ll notice is that I will no longer be commenting on political rhetoric or journalism’s coverage of it.
And, yes, my timing is really terrible considering the Palin resignation speech 
Booo!
Er, I mean, I will miss your commentary on political rhetoric. Or, I should actually say, I have been missing your commentary on political rhetoric for some time, since the shift in the emphasis of the blog moved away from the rhetoric and to the coverage thereof. Or, to be even more specific, to the rhetoric of the coverage more than the rhetoric of the actors.
In other words, I already miss your rhetorical analyses of major speeches and other acts of speech by Our Leaders and those who would lead us. I understand that your academic specialization moved away from that, and frankly, I haven’t done much of it myself for years, but (a) it still seems worth doing, and (2) you do it well. Ah, well.
I do agree with you, by the way, that punditry (particularly) and the craft of political journalism is for crap, and probably not even worth complaining about for a while, until we see what shakes down. Still, political rhetoric continues (it can’t actually stop, by the nature of things) and since it is covered so badly by newspapers, television, radio and the major blogs, it would be good to know where to go for good writing and analysis of it.
Anyway–I’ll keep you in the aggregator, of course, and look forward to continuing to read your stuff, but I wanted you to know that the shift that had begun a couple of years ago and was being formalized now was noticed and (from my point of view) regretted.
Thanks,
-V.
V.– Thanks for your kind thoughts. I appreciate that my new focus is disappointing for you. I take that as a high compliment.