DOUGHNUTTING

noun Also written donutting (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Politics) In television jargon, the clustering of politicians round a speaker during a televised parliamentary debate so as to fill the shot and make the speaker appear well supported. Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -ing to doughnut--presumably alluding to the ring shape of some doughnuts as resembling the ring of supporters, or to the jam in the middle as representing the speaker, surrounded by the apparently substantial dough of his support. History and Usage: The word is often said to have been used in connection with the first televised debates from the federal parliament in Ottawa, but Canadian newspaper reports of the time do not bear this out (describing the practice, but not using the word). When the British parliament began to be televised, and particularly when House of Commons debates first appeared on TV screens in 1989, the word enjoyed a brief vogue in the press amid speculation that members would attempt to fill the seats immediately behind the speaker so as to make the chamber appear full, even when in fact a debate had attracted only a handful of MPs. Its use in popular sources promises to be shortlived. Mr Kirkwood did have a little ring of fellow-Liberals around him. But this practice of 'doughnutting', as Canadian parliamentarians call it, exhausts the nutters more than it fools the viewers. Daily Telegraph 24 Nov. 1989, p. 14