Team of hacks, stooges, bums, or what?

A Law of Journalese, adopted from the corporate world of BS, requires that any group be called a team when it’s run by politicians, business executives, community activists or anyone else not in jail. There’s a team even if the guy heading the team is a bum, scoundrel, liar, phony or a total jerk, and the team is made up of stooges just like the boss. An example is that “Trump team” got 854,000 hits on a Google search. Criminals never have a team. They have a gang, cabal, bunch, mob, syndicate or crew.

What brought this up was a story in The Boston Globe, July 14, 2017, about Brian S. Dempsey, chairman of the Massachusetts House of Representatives budget committee, quitting his elected post to become a lobbyist. The story reports: “While rumors of Dempsey’s plan circulated Wednesday evening, members of DeLeo’s senior leadership team were unaware of them as late as Thursday morning.”

Robert. A DeLeo is Speaker of the House. For a different view of the story, worth a smile or two, here’s a link to Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr’s take on the Speaker and his “leadership team.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/howie_carr/2017/07/carr_state_rep_brian_dempsey_hits_eject_button.

File under: Thank the media gods Boston is still a two daily paper town.

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Contact: BobSkole@aol.com