From: ndallen@r-node.gts.org (Nigel Allen)
Subject: Doublespeak Awards
Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 09:30:45 GMT


/* Written  5:55 pm  Nov 21, 1992 by bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu in igc:misc.activism. */
/* ---------- "1992 Doublespeak Awards" ---------- */
1992 Doublespeak Awards
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

From the November 20th issue of the Champaign-Urbana "News-
Gazette." (summation of article)

Doublespeak Awards Find Fertile Ground in Politics
==================================================

(Champaign-Urbana, November 20, 1992) -- Doublespeak has just
about driven William Lutz to the brink of -- "mental activity at
the margins."

That euphemism was just one gem discovered by the Rutgers
University English professor for the 1992 Doublespeak Awards,
announced today in Urbana by the National Council of Teachers of
English.

The annual awards -- intended to call attention to language that
is "grossly deceptive, evasive and euphemistic" -- were bestowed
during the council's convention in Louisville, Kentucky.


Among the nominees:

*** Instead of being laid off, workers are "involuntarily
terminated" as companies "reposition," "reshape," "realign" and
"reduce duplication" through a "release of resources," "permanent
downsizing" or "payroll adjustment."

*** Along with other newfound freedoms, the people of Moscow can
now visit "intimacy salons" -- sex shops, as they are known in
other countries.

*** U.S. soldiers should pay close attention to the Army's
warning that exposure to nerve gas may cause "immediate permanent
incapacitation" -- that is, death.

*** Students who stand still are now in a state of "spatial
anchoring."

*** Removing books from the library isn't censorship, just a case
of "weeding" books.

*** Colleges don't drop failing students, they "expedite their
progress toward alternate life pursuits."

*** Electric fans are now "high-velocity, multipurpose air
circulators."

*** Radio and television commercials are now referred to as
"value minutes."

*** A U.S. Department of Energy nuclear fuel dump is a
"monitored retrievable storage site."

*** The Environmental Protection Agency now refers to acid rain
as "wet deposition."

*** Politicians in Canada engage in "reality augmentation" but
would never say that they'd lied.


And the winners are:

3rd place -- All the politicians who put the phrase "family
values" at the center of the 1992 political campaign. An
ambiguous and vague phrase, it "exploited intense feelings
aroused by the idea of the family to celebrate their [i.e.
politicos] own idea of what constitutes the best domestic
arrangement."

2nd place -- The Republican and Democratic parties for "claiming
they are for reforming the way political campaigns are financed,
even while they continue to seek and accept large contributions
from special-interest groups, corporations, and wealthy
individuals."

1st place -- President Bush for various novel uses of language,
including calling for "less proliferation of all different kinds
of weapons" as the Department of Defense reversed a 25-year
policy and began supporting arms trade shows around the world.


Finally, the 1992 George Orwell Award for Distinguished
Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language went to
Donald Barlett and James Steele, authors of "America: What Went
Wrong." The authors received the award for cutting through "the
political and economic doublespeak used to justify the economic
policy of the 1980s" to reveal "who is and isn't paying the price
in the '90s."

--------------------------- end ---------------------------------


You can do a lot of good by taking this article and posting it to
other areas besides "alt.activism." You can also post this or
upload it as a file to a local BBS. This would help give the
people of this nation an alternative to the "fluff" and
propaganda posturing as hard news which they are currently
getting from the major networks.


Transcribed by Brian Redman
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."
End

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Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.rush-limbaugh