COMM 337: The Trib enthrones a "carp czar" ... and raises a question for us in the media

Remember when the Republicans in Congress got all in a snit because President Obama was appointing too many "czars" to administrative positions. It made him sound foreign. Like a dictator. Russian. Communist. (Well, maybe Russian but not communist. It was the communists who got rid of the real czars.) FactCheck.org checked it out and reported, "'Czar' is a label bestowed by the media – and sometimes the administration – as a shorthand for the often-cumbersome titles of various presidential advisers, assistants, office directors, special envoys and deputy secretaries."

"After all," asked FactCheck, "what makes for a better headline – 'weapons czar' or 'undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics'?"

The word "czar" (more properly transliterated from Russian as "tsar") refers to the ruler of the Russian Empire and "Autocrat of all the Russias" from the time of Ivan III (1440-1505) until Nicholas II (1868-1918) was deposed during the Russian Revolution. Tsar Nicholas is pictured at left (photo Wikimedia Commons).

So now comes The Chicago Tribune with a story about a "carp czar" appointed by the Obama administration to coordinate the various federal agencies working to try to stop the spread of Asian carp, an invasive species, into Lake Michigan in the Chicago area.

Here's the headline:

White House names Asian carp czar
Appointee once led Indiana Department of Natural Resources

And here's the lede, by staff writer Joel Hood:

The White House has tapped a former leader of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as the Asian carp czar to oversee the federal response for keeping the invasive species out of the Great Lakes.

If there's anything un-czarlike, it's a carp. So when John Goss was appointed Chairman of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee, it must have been irresistable.

Here, from a press release by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, is a more accurate - but less colorful - way of referring to the position:

Since 2003, I’ve been working at the federal level to keep this invasive species away from Lake Michigan. In June, I asked President Obama to appoint a federal Coordinated Response Commander for Asian carp with the knowledge and skills to direct and coordinate multiple federal, state, and private sector efforts.

Goss will work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geologic Service and the Coast Guard. So in this case, a czar isn't a Russian emperor but a bureaucratic "coordinated response commander."

Now here's the question:

Does playing around with the word "czar" like this make government look foolish? Or am I just carping?

Your thoughts?