- How words are used can be crucial to understanding and
misunderstanding the world around us. The media lexicon is saturated with
certain buzz phrases. They're popular -- but what do they mean?
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- "The use of words is to express ideas," James
Madison wrote. "Perspicuity, therefore, requires not only that the
ideas should be distinctly formed, but that they should be expressed by
words distinctly and exclusively appropriate to them." More than two
centuries later, surveying the wreckage of public language in political
spheres, you might be tempted to murmur: "Dream on, Jim."
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- With 2002 nearing its end in the midst of great international
tension, here's a sampling of some top U.S. media jargon:
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- "Pre-Emptive"
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- This adjective represents a kind of inversion of the
Golden Rule: "Do violence onto others just in case they might otherwise
do violence onto you." Brandished by Uncle Sam, we're led to believe
that's a noble concept.
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- "Weapons Of Mass Destruction"
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- They're bad unless they're good. Globally, the U.S. government
leads the way with thousands of unfathomably apocalyptic nuclear weapons.
(Cue the media cheers.) Regionally, in the Middle East, only Israel has
a nuclear arsenal -- estimated at 200 atomic warheads -- currently under
the control of Ariel Sharon, who has proven to be lethally out of control
on a number of occasions. (Cue the media shrugs.) Meanwhile, the possibility
that Saddam Hussein might someday develop any such weapons is deemed to
be sufficient reason to launch a war. (Cue the Pentagon missiles.)
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- "International Community"
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- Honorary members include any and all nations that are
allied with Washington or accede to its policies. Other governments are
evil rogue states.
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- "International Law"
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- This is the political equivalent of Play Dough, to be
shaped, twisted and kneaded as needed. No concept is too outlandish, no
rationalization too Orwellian when a powerful government combines with
pliant news media. Few members of the national press corps are willing
to question the basics when the man in the Oval Office issues the latest
pronouncement about international behavior. It's a cinch that fierce condemnation
would descend on any contrary power that chooses to do as we do and not
as we say.
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- "Terrorism"
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- The hands-down winner of the rhetorical sweepstakes for
2002, this word aptly condemns as reprehensible the killing of civilians,
but the word is applied quite selectively rather than evenhandedly. When
the day comes that news outlets accord the life of a Palestinian child
the same reverence as the life of an Israeli child, we'll know that media
coverage has moved beyond craven mediaspeak to a single standard of human
rights.
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- Although you wouldn't know it from U.S. media coverage,
80 percent of the Palestinians killed in recent months by the Israeli Defense
Force during curfew enforcement were children, according to an October
report from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Twelve people under
the age of 16 had been killed, with dozens more wounded by Israeli gunfire
in occupied areas, during a period of four months. "None of those
killed endangered the lives of soldiers," B'Tselem said.
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- Closer to home, in less dramatic ways, the concept of
"human rights" melts away when convenient. Even an assiduous
reader of the U.S. press would be surprised to run across some key provisions
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations
more than 50 years ago and theoretically in force today. For instance,
the document declares without equivocation that "everyone has the
right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions
of work and to protection against unemployment."
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- Perhaps the Universal Declaration passage least likely
to succeed with U.S. news media appears in Article 25: "Everyone has
the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being
of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical
care and the necessary social services, and the right to security in the
event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other
lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
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- Words expressing those kinds of ideas are scarce in our
media lexicon.
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- Norman Solomon's latest book is "The Habits of Highly
Deceptive Media." Written by Norman Solomon of Fair.Org--Posted 12/13/2002
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- http://www.gooff.com/news/read.asp?ID=1672
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