President Bush's commutation of Irv Lewis Libby, Jr.'s sentence should remind all of us communicators out in blogmerica of the power (and the necessity) of words--precise and exacting words. When you write something for a client please stick to pure English not political Orwellian New Speak. Man, his sentence wasn't commuted--he got a 'get out of jail free' card.
I believe that most children and some adults can see through or read through linguistic advertising lies and caveats. So avoid them like the plague.
Now, if you're one of the thousands of avid readers of Ad Aged, you know I am keenly interested in the abuse of language for nefarious purposes, including duping the public to buy your product. If you are too, pick up Viktor Klemperer's Lingua Tertii Imperii. That's Latin for The Language of the Third Reich. In his diary, Klemperer (a distant relative of Colonel Klink) bears witness to the degeneration of language under a dictatorship. As a Jew who survived first the Nazi fascists and then the Soviet fascists, his chilling account knows whereof it speaks. You can find it on Amazon or a good bookstore, if there are any left.
1 comment:
No mention that his name is actually Irving Lewis Libby (no real junior there folks).
Talk about duping the public, this administration has lies and caveats all over the place. But then the VP is way out of the normal place as he's above the law.
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