It’s ash’s favorite category of humor, the flip side of exaggeration. As the comedian Jerry Seinfeld noted in his routine: If you find your shirt covered in blood, maybe you’ve got bigger problems than which laundry detergent will get out the stains.
On page 2 of Thursday’s edition, the legendary Calvin Trillin wrote, “A panel made up largely of conservative delegates approved platform language that calls for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and opposes legal recognition of any sort of gay civil unions…The draft urges a constitutional ban on abortion…and endorses President Bush’s restrictions on federal financing of stem cell research.
“’ We are the party of the open door,’ said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who led platform deliberations on social issues.”
Since Trillin’s report contained no personal commentary, it constituted a straight news story. Had he added the sentence, “You can’t make this stuff up,” it would have been an editorial.