blog navigation

blog posts

  • Glenn Beck wins 2009 Doublespeak Award

    Images

Comments

browerg@moravian.edu Dec 9, 2009 10:18 am

Has "dog bites man" become news? In 35 years (http://webserve.govst.edu/pa/Introduction/doublespeak_awards.htm -- I attached a pdf of their page) the award has gone to a Republican President 8 times, including one shared with a cabinet secretary, but only once to a Democrat President (1997), and he shared with two Republican Congressional leaders.*Only 5 of 35 awards* are unassociated, on their faces, with the Republican Party or its supporters:1976 to Yassar Arafat; 1977 to Jimmy Carter's Defense and Energy Departments; 1986 to NASA;1993 to WJ Clinton's Defense Department;2002 to the New York State Board of RegentsBut 1977 and 1993 were the first years of the Carter and Clinton Presidencies, so those awards could easily have been for work done under the prior Ford and Reagan administrations.In that case, the only noteworthy instances of "American public figures who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-contradictory" in the last 35 years, not associated with the Republican Party or its supporters, were by a foreign politician (hardly an American public figure), NASA, and one state's supervisor of education.I find it really hard to believe that Republicans and their supporters have had such a near strangle hole on the coinage of "grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-contradictory" language for 35 years.Otherwise, the award would be good for some fun.

Reply to browerg@moravian.edu at 10:18 am