Wry reporter humor

From a New York Times story on the deluxe accomodations in some military bases in Iraq:

"We had no idea conditions were going to be this great!" said Lieutenant Deaton, 25, the public affairs officer of the 256th Brigade Combat Team and an ambassador of the exclamation mark. "My first thought was, oh my God! This is good!"

The phrase "ambassador of the exclamation mark" is a great little commentary on Deaton's email punctuation style and the happy-happy mantras of the military PR flack. Love it.

Comments

[rone]

Heh heh. I've been having a character in a short story i'm writing speak almost exclusively with exclamation points.

[Jon Henke]

I'm a bit surprised you note such journalist-editorializing approvingly.

This, it seems to me, is one of the downsides of "he said/she said" reporting. When you simply report what each side says, each side will hype up the hyperbole in order to win the rhetorical he said/she said match. (or, in this case, to present their case in the most exuberant language possible)

And the only recourse a reporter has is to subtly -- or, in this case, not so subtly -- weigh in on one side or the other with a bit of editorializing.

Well, that's not entirely true. They could try discerning the facts, rather than simply letting other people use them for PR.