May 13, 2015
Everyone knows that the Washington Post supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but does it really have to resort to name calling in its news pages to refer to people who disagree with its position? That’s what readers of its front page piece on the Senate vote to block the discussion of a bill authorizing a fast-track are wondering.
The piece referred to Senator Sherrod Brown and other staunch opponents of TPP in its current form as “anti-trade hard-liners.” Of course Senator Brown and his allies are not opponents of trade, they do not advocate autarky. The correct way to refer to these people would have been “anti-TPP.” Given the concern of newspapers over space, in addition to being more accurate, this also would have saved the paper two letters.
The use of the term “hard-liner” is also questionable. Are the strong supporters of TPP ever referred to as “hard-liners?” If not, then it can be argued that the use of phrase in reference to Senator Brown and his allies is more pejorative than descriptive.
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