Stuttering in the headlines, misunderstood yet again: "Kavanaugh stutters and stammers before admitting there are no laws that govern the male body"

Stuttering in the headlines, misunderstood yet again: "Kavanaugh stutters and stammers before admitting there are no laws that govern the male body" [https://thinkprogress.org/kamala-harris-questions-brett-kavanaugh-no-laws-govern-male-body-71f281897a8b/](https://thinkprogress.org/kamala-harris-questions-brett-kavanaugh-no-laws-govern-male-body-71f281897a8b/) "Kavanaugh stutters and stammers before admitting there are no laws that govern the male body"   I was checking Google news headlines, and this one from ThinkProgress caught my attention. “Kavanaugh stutters and stammers…”   The body of the article starts, “In a telling moment during Wednesday’s confirmation hearings, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh appeared dumbfounded when he was asked by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) whether he knows of any laws that give the government the power to control male bodies.”   The author says Kavanaugh was “dumbfounded” and chose to convey this by using “stutters and stammers” as if it were a synonym. First off, he damn well didn’t “stutter and stammer.” Secondly, the subtext we’re given here is pretty clear. “Look at that buffoon! He stutters and stammers!” Maybe what was meant to be communicated was that Kavanaugh was stumbling over his words while trying to find the right way to respond. Even so, there’s no way what he did reached the magnitude suggested by “stuttering and stammering,” and using one’s incredibly minor dysfluency to discredit them is just plain ignorant, as I think we can all attest.   Another example of stuttering being misunderstood and used as a tool to suggest incompetence. This headline very much bothered me. Am I totally off-base? Am I overreacting?