As a media rhetoric scholar, I am fascinated with the word “rhetoric” being thrown around in the media after the Arizona shooting. (Tea party rhetoric, political rhetoric, media rhetoric, Sarah Palin’s rhetoric, etc.) The media is blaming rhetoric. The killer did not throw dictionaries at his victims–he killed them point blank with a gun, which takes more than words to convince a person to commit such a violent act.
Here are some headlines using the word rhetoric:
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