To save or kill a baby polar bear
Appropriate metaphor for the economy?
When is it a good thing to be provocative? Today we respond to a listener's critique of an analogy that compares central bankers' raising interest rates to Berlin zookeepers' decision whether to kill Knut the baby polar bear. If nothing else, it was memorable. But is that enough?
In journalism, being provocative for the sake of being provocative is mere attention-getting. Being provocative on issues where the heat is already high in the public debate is counterproductive, because it has the same effect as throwing gasoline on a fire.
Yet, there is room for language that is deliberately designed to stop news consumers in their tracks. The best time and place for provocation is when the subject matter is important
