The Frame Game

It’s amazing to me to see the number of things that Come Under Fire these days. Policies, remarks, institutions, countries, people and so on. When someone or something is coming under fire and we read about it in the headlines, it’s strange that in many cases, the “target” is portrayed as having done something hurtful to the status quo, stepped outside of their bounds, or just plain made a mistake. The entity doing the firing is there to call them out, point out their shortcomings, get them back in line, punish them appropriately.

In this way, to fire a bullet at someone after they have done something you don’t like is a metaphor for appropriately making things right again. To be shot for doing something you shouldn’t have is a metaphor for getting what you probably deserve. Yikes.

Queries: what does it mean when, today for example, we hear about a senior U.S. State Department diplomat saying that the United States displayed “arrogance” and “stupidity” in its handling of the Iraq war, and so many news outlets are now saying that he’s coming under fire? In what frame are they putting his choices, and in what frame are they putting the response of those who are firing back at him? What does it mean that the “coming under fire” metaphor is being used to describe decisions made in a setting where every day, people are literally coming under fire? What does that say about what we think about them?