As played by Anthony LaPaglia, Nixon is physically awkward and prone to third-person self-reference (more a Bob Dole tic, actually), but he is also soft-spoken and no more than ordinarily profane.

NEWYORKER: Wag the Dog

Similarly, when the Sunni Muslim Mr Hussein inaugurated his triumphal arches, he rode through them on a white horse in self-conscious reference to the steed of Hussein, the Shia Muslim hero martyred at nearby Kerbala, without any apparent embarrassment at Mr Hussein's ongoing repression of his own Shia citizens.

ECONOMIST: Monumental

This is both a reference to the self-absorbed role of the film's narrator, and to the broader sense that such campaigns can be deeply paternalistic, even neo-colonial, in their portrayal of Africans as helpless victims who must be saved by brave foreigners.

BBC: Joseph Kony campaign under fire

We've been following start-up Music Gremlin for some time now, from its ambitious beginnings as a software company through its transition to a reference device designer and finally into a self-branding manufacturer, so we were more than a little disappointed to learn that lukewarm reviews of the recently-launched MG-1000 DAP indicate that it contains no small number of bugs and frustrating restrictions.

ENGADGET: MusicGremlin MG-1000 review roundup

This gives them a reference point, without making you look like a self-obsessed megalomaniac.

FORBES: 11 Conference Tips for Entrepreneurs

During his recent speech before the civil rights group, the NAACP, he made reference to these events to emphasise his theme of black self-improvement.

BBC: Racial politics in the White House

With concern about earnings and more companies issuing profit warnings - the media's constant reference to recession may turn out to be a self fulfilling prophecy.

BBC: Media fuel fears of US recession

While the president has the right to call for more green investment, his reference to the role of green energy in China told only a very tiny and self-serving part of the story.

FORBES: China's Energy Grab Is No Green Affair