August 22, 2006
Welcome back!
Welcome back to school. I hope your semester is getting off to a great start.
I've spoken with a few members of the Society since Friday's COAL meeting. The consensus is to try to have a first lunch meeting sometime in the second week of the semester. I'll send an e-mail about it before the end of the week.
Posted by acline at 7:02 PM | 58 Words
April 3, 2006
Friday meeting instead...
The meeting time has changed. The MSRS will meet on Friday 7 April at noon in the Union Club.
Posted by acline at 1:45 PM | 19 Words
March 30, 2006
MSRS meeting next week
The next meeting of the Missouri State Rhetoric Society will be noon Wednesday, 5 April 2006 at the Union Club.
See you there!
Posted by acline at 2:39 PM | 23 Words
March 2, 2006
Minutes of the last meeting :-)
Our MSRS meeting yesterday was small but intellectually stimulating. I'll call one more meeting before spring break. Any suggestions for a good time/place?
Posted by acline at 12:05 PM | 23 Words
February 22, 2006
Just need a quote
Thanks to my colleague Joe Hughes for pointing out that CBS News online quoted me the other day.
Unfortunately, the quote is a bit out of context (all quotes are necessarily a bit out of content, but that's a discussion for another day). Here's the line:
Missouri State University Professor Andrew Cline at Rhetorica agrees Cheney was just playing smart politics. "I can't blame Cheney for making an excellent choice in how to play this situation," he blogs.
My quote follows this:
But Paul at the conservative Wizbang blog offers a simpler explanation. "If he had allowed this to get out 'fast break style' the media would have screwed it up completely. Totally and completely," he blogs. "Can anyone blame him for not wanting the story to come out screwed up?"
So it appears that my quote is positively commenting on Cheney's withholding the information so that it would be reported more accurately. Not so. I was commenting on the tactic of using the concept of accuracy against the press; I did not accept Cheney's excuse that he wanted to make sure the story was accurate. Nor do I think, as Wizbang does, that the press would have screwed it up (emphasis added):
I wondered how he would spin the time lag, and I was frankly awed by his choice: Hit the press where it lives by asserting one of its most important practices--a practice that crosses the boundary between craft and ethic.What's interesting about this tactic is that it attacks an epistemological weakness in our culture. "Accuracy" is not a fixed state, rather it changes over time as we learn new facts. When we arrive at something like a fixed state of "accuracy" we call it history. I'll bet Cheney's fixed state of "accuracy" sounded like common sense to a lot of people.
That said, I'm always happy to be quoted by a major news organization.
Posted by acline at 9:29 AM | 329 Words
February 20, 2006
Way to go, Andy!
Caught this on the CBS News website this morning (and no doubt you already did too) :
Missouri State University Professor Andrew Cline at Rhetorica agrees Cheney was just playing smart politics. "I can't blame Cheney for making an excellent choice in how to play this situation," he blogs.
Posted by jhughes at 7:57 PM | 49 Words | Comments (1)
February 18, 2006
Pleased to meet you
My name is Joe Hughes. I am a Professor of Classics in the Modern and Classical Languages Department; if you're feeling a little masochistic, you're welcome to visit my website. I was once quite interested in how information technology could help us further the Public Affairs Mission and develop educated persons. I'd be delighted to discover that the rumors of this old horse's death have been exaggerated.
Posted by jhughes at 9:49 PM | 69 Words | Comments (5)
