More broadcast journalism

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah. "Loaded diction" is what we called it in freshman comp. A cheap method
of slanting.

GB plausibly alleges a 1913 ex. (the typeface of the snippet looks right),
but the phr. doesn't seem to take off till decades later. (The 1913 is in a
poetry review, not a textbook.)

Was there an earlier synonymous term of art? Or did one have to rely on
circumlocutions like "unwarranted innuendo"?

JL

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 1:57 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: More broadcast journalism
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "loaded"?
>
> m a m
>
> On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 7:14 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > I've just read an historian who does the same thing.  What is (are)
> > the best adjective(s) to describe this kind of writing and
> > speech?  (I want serious, scholarly ones, not the snarky.)
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 5/3/2010 05:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >It took two by-lined AP journalists to write the following [
> > >
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100503/ap_on_re_us/us_times_square_car_bomb
> > ]:
> > >
> > >"The surveillance video, made public late Sunday, shows the man slipping
> > >down Shubert Alley and taking off his shirt, revealing another
> underneath.
> > >In the same clip, [he] looks back in the direction of the smoking
> vehicle
> > >and furtively puts the first shirt in a bag."
> > >
> > >I've watched the video several times, and simple accuracy demands
> > >"...walking down Shubert Alley" and "looks behind him and places the
> first
> > >shirt in the bag."
> > >
> > >At least the article cites Mayor Bloomberg (for balance):  "'He may or
> may
> > >not have been involved,' he said, adding it was a hot day and he might
> > >simply have been trying to cool off."
> > >
> > >Whether or not the guy turns out to have been involved, the only
> possible
> > >reason to write "slipping," "furtively," and "in the direction of the
> > >smoking vehicle" is to make his actions - in this clip -  seem
> especially
> > >suspicious.
> > >
> >
>
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