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Home > Rough Draft > Archives > 2008 > September > 04 > Entry

Papa (and Roy Clark) knows best about calling out propaganda

By Laurena Mayne Davis | Thursday, September 4, 2008, 10:10 AM

Ernest Hemingway, who honed his terse and direct prose as a newspaper reporter, said writers should develop a built-in BS-detector (my G-rated paraphrase).

Roy Clark, probably the greatest writing coach of all time (not that I’m his biggest fan — OK, maybe I am, but I wouldn’t break his cockadoody ankle or anything), recalled Papa’s insistence in this timely read: Here’s Your Handy-Dandy Propaganda Detector.

Clark shares seven of his favorite propaganda-detection tools, from Name Calling to Plain Folks, and distinguishes between emotional propaganda and rational propaganda.

Between now and Nov. 4, voters are going to need all the help they can get to navigate political speeches, advertisements, debates and media coverage. Sharpen your skepticism and put these tools to good use.

AP photo of Ernest Hemingway in 1939 working on “For Whom the Bell Tolls” at Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho.

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