crude enemy baiting

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Could anyone help me with the underlined phrases?

Thanks a lot.

1. The patriotic imperative so deeply rooted in the dominant political and media culture together with journalistic self-censorship and the hyper-jingoism and crude enemy baiting of the popular press, all served to transform new militarism into spectator sport.

2. Across the spectrum of the newspaper press, although to a lesser extent on the pages of the Daily Mirror and the Guardian, the Argentine people were depicted in savage terms. Front page headlines published by the Sun included 'STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA.'

 

[RonBee]

The writer clearly has an ideological ax to grind. The term hyper-jingoism is a term on a par with over-exaggerate. :wink:

When you bait somebody it is with the purpose of offending him, so the term "crude enemy baiting" is redundant considering that baiting is usually pretty crude anyhow. The phrase "stick it up your junta" is meant to be offensive.

:wink:

 

[Tdol]

The Sun headline comes from 'Stick it up your jumper'- an expression meaning 'take that' and was used when the British had sunk, albeit illegally, an Argentine ship during the conflict.

 

[RonBee]

The Sun headline comes from 'Stick it up your jumper'- an expression meaning 'take that' and was used when the British had sunk, albeit illegally, an Argentine ship during the conflict.

The Argentines had previously used an Exocet missile (which they had bought from the French) to sink a British ship. So a little jingoism was perhaps understandable.

:wink: