More broadcast journalism

[Jonathan Lighter]

You probably need more than word for the level of precision required.

"Slanted/biased toward the likelihood of guilt," "loaded diction that
suggests wrongdoing without a basis in observation," etc.

BTW, in the freshman comp days of the mid '70s or earlier (I tested out of
comp personally), "loaded diction" was accepted terminology - not slangy at
all. Likewise, in an extended argument, "loading the dice."

It seems not be used, though, in the _Harbrace Handbook_ of that era.

GB has an 1885 ref. to Chaucer's "richly loaded diction": a good thing.
Today that phrase would be nearly impossible.

My guess is that before ca1970 students were simply warned against the use
of inappropriate connotations. My sense (i.e., halfway between guess and
impression) is that after Vietnam, composition textbooks began focusing more
closely on the dangers of biased diction.

Journalists, however, have long been warned against drawing unwarranted
conclusions.  The "New Journalism," however, rode roughshod over that
principle. But TNJ is really literature based on journalistic observation;
it doesn't necessarily even try to be objective.


JL


On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: More broadcast journalism
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 5/4/2010 01:57 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>
> >"loaded"?
>
> Nearly, but I'm looking for something perhaps less slangy and more
> academic.  The practice I'm repelled by is the choice of words to add
> an emotional overtone to a statement so as to bias the reader's
> reaction. For a quick example in the absence of better ones,
> "So-and-so's irrational decision to whatever ...".
>
> The OED tells me "loaded" = charged, burdened, laden, etc.  Perhaps
> "emotionally charged language" (Jon's "loaded diction" is perhaps a
> bit abstruse for historians, but "innuendo" might work in a
> well-constructed phrase.)  Another sense is "1. d. fig. Charged with
> some hidden implication or underlying suggestion; biased,
> prejudiced", but biased and prejudiced didn't seem quite what I wanted.
>
> (My first reading of ""Loaded diction" is what we called it in
> freshman comp." was "freshman camp"!  I thought to myself, my Jon
> started early.)
>
> Thanks,
> Joel
>
>
> >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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