Exhibit 53: Noel Sheppard's School of Headline Cliches

There are reasons that the Media Research Center hired Noel Sheppard as NewsBusters' associate editor. Presumably, his ability to mislead about issues like global warming or be shocked by things that aren't shocking counted for a lot more than his ability to write headlines.

Related articles on ConWebWatch: NewsBusted: The Sheppard File NewsBusted: The Sheppard File, Global Warming Division Noel Sheppard's Very Convenient Lie Out There Exhibit 47: Shocked By The Non-Shocking

But write headlines he must. Unfortunately, Sheppard has a bad habit of leaning on cliched headlines for his NewsBusters posts. And not a particularly wide selection of cliches, either: Certain terms pop up on a distressingly regular basis.

For instance, variations on the term "smack down." In a single 30-day period in September and October 2010, Sheppard cranked out these suspiciously similar headlines:

• George Will Smacks Down Paul Krugman With Simple Reaganomics
• Krauthammer Smacks Down Inside Washington Panel Over GOP Campaign Contributions
• Monica Crowley Smacks Down Eleanor Clift Over GOP Being 'Extreme'
• Greta Van Susteren Smacks Down 'Delusional' Allred: It's 'Unthinkable' and 'Rotten'
• O'Reilly Smacks Down Maher for Claiming Anti-Obama Sentiment is Racist
• Matthews Smacks Down Guest Who Says Obama Threw His Family Under The Bus
• Krauthammer Smacks Down WaPo's King Over Stimulus Jobs Created or Saved
• George Will Smacks Down Beinart's Claim Sarah Palin Is GOP's George McGovern
• Krauthammer Smacks Down WaPo's King Over Palin and Tea Party Agenda
• Erick Erickson Smacks Down CNN's Bash for Calling Voter Anger Racist
• Dan Rather Smacks Down Entire Matthews Panel Over Media Hyping Koran Burning
• Judith Miller Smacks Down Alan Colmes For Saying 9/11 Shouldn't Be Commemorated

Even after that explosion of cliche abuse, Sheppard couldn't let go of it, making regular use of the term in 2011:

• Jan. 15: Pat Buchanan Smacks Down Bill Press: 'You’ve Got to Get Beyond Being a Fringe Talk Show Host'
• Feb. 13: Mort Zuckerman Smacks Down Eleanor Clift's Claim Egypt Protesters Are Secular: 'That's Nonsense!'
• Feb. 19: Bill Maher Smacks Down Tavis Smiley: 'When You Tolerate Intolerance You're Not Really Being A Liberal'
• Feb. 21: Wisconsin State Senator Smacks Down Chris Matthews
• March 12: "Tea Partier Dana Loesch Smacks Down Paul Begala on HBO's 'Real Time'
• April 10: Rich Lowry Smacks Down Eleanor Clift: 'You're Talking Out of Both Sides of Your Mouth'

If people weren't getting smacked down in Sheppard's imagination, mostly for the offense of being insufficiently conservative, they were being "schooled." Sheppard regularly abused that headline in recent months as well:

• Andrew Sullivan Schools Maher and Spitzer on Budget, ObamaCare and Paul Ryan
• Eleanor Clift Schooled On Egypt By Entire McLaughlin Group
• National Review's Salam Schools Andrew Sullivan on Conservatism, Palin and the Tea Party
• Tony Blankley Schools Ed Schultz and Bill Press on Which Side Uses Violent Political Rhetoric
• Medved Schools Schultz and Press on Tea Party and Obama's Tax Cuts
• Condoleezza Rice Schools Katie Couric on Why U.S. Invaded Iraq
• Michael Moore Schooled On 'Real Time': Anti-Obama Sentiment Isn't Racist
• Charles Krauthammer Schools Carlson and Krugman on Raising Social Security Retirement Age
• GOP Strategist Schools Matthews: Palin's Resumé Just As Strong As Obama's Was
• George Will Schools Christiane Amanpour On Campaign Spending
• GOP Strategist Schools Matthews: 'Palin's Had A Lot More Experience Than Obama'
• George Will Schools This Week Panel on Tea Party Causing GOP Civil War

Schooling employees on how to avoid using -- and overusing -- cliches, it seems, is not part of the MRC "media research" training. Perhaps is should be.

Out There archive