lamestream

[Garson O'Toole]

In 1994 senator Howard Metzenbaum used the term lame-stream as a
mocking reference to mainstream. But he was not referring to media. He
was referring to a political coalition that he opposed.

1994 September 19, ADA NEWS (American Dental Association), Page 13,
Reform, Chicago, llinois. (NewspaperArchive)

The self-styled "mainstream" coalition is not without Senate critics,
Ohio Democrat Howard Metzenbaum calling its eleventh hour plan a
"lame-stream" proposal.


There are hits a few days earlier in the Washington Times on 1994
September 7 and 13, but I cannot check them with a full view at this
time.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22crass+lame+stream%22&


An obituary for Howard Metzenbaum in the Washington Post dated 2008
March 14 does include a 1994 quote from him that includes the term
lame-stream.

Sen. Metzenbaum rarely pulled his punches. He was so incensed by the
opposition to President Bill Clinton's universal health care proposal
in 1994 that he called a counterproposal from a bipartisan group of
moderates "a callow, heartless idea, a harebrained, cruel, crass,
'lame-stream' proposal, one of the most absurd things I've ever heard
of."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/12/AR2008031204487.html

Garson

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 7:39 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: lamestream
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 7:22 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> A day or so after Sarah Palin warned (Saturday) "Don't believe what you hear
>> in the lamestream media," I noticed CNN had a map put up on the screen
>> plainly marked with "PAKISTAN" and "AFGANANASTAN."
>
> That's pretty lamestream.
>
> Barry Popik, by the way, dates "lamestream media" back to 1999:
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/lamestream_media_lame_stream_media/
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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