"staged"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I raised the issue of the meaning of "staged" last year. Here is another
case.

According to The Korean War: An Encyclopedia_ (Garland, 1995, p. 270): "As
the war continued to worsen for the U.N. forces the Army desired...to
control what was reported. The military staged some stories. At the Inchon
landing, MacArthur invited four correspondents as his personal guests...to
relay the military's official version of the landing."

What the...?  To me this can *only* mean that the Inchon landing was
planned and carried out solely for the benefit of the four correspondents,
with the additional likelihood (like the "staged" Moon landing) that what
was happening was not entirely real (maybe fake tanks were used) or the
whole operation was designed entirely to deceive.

What the writer means to say, however, must be that "The military carefully
managed the news it released to the press."

Very different, if you ask me.

So what's the deal with "staged"?

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org