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Reader question: Please explain "political hack", as in "He's a political hack." My comments: First of all, a political hack is a politician, a pro, usually an old hand who has done a lot of the dull, perhaps dirty but by and large rather uninteresting stuff in order to advance the interests of their political party. Now, have you ever heard of a journalist being described as a hack? Being a journalist myself, I would like to explain what a journalistic hack does by way of comparison. A regular journalistic hack, for example, is someone who writes a summary of the daily world news for the domestic audience. The domestic audience, you see, are more interested in national politics. Those who are interested in international affairs will, of course, read world news on the international pages. So for the domestic page, a brief summary of what's going on internationally will do. Nothing in depth or substantial, nothing imaginative or creative, just a bland dose will do. Because of this, as you can imagine, the job is usually not assigned to the best and brightest staff, but to someone who is able enough to tell a rudimentary story, or a summary of a story at any rate. And since this is a daily routine, you can also imagine that our hack is familiar with the process through and through and is able to churn out the said summary without any trouble, sometimes without even bother. The writer may be able to do the job with eyes half closed. | 
