"staged"

[Joel S. Berson]

Me too.  Except I don't see it as a mistake, rather an extension of
"stage" = "put on a play".

Joel

At 8/6/2012 10:36 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>My guess is that "staged" here is a mistake for, or used as a
>shortened form of, "stage-managed" (AHD:  to direct or manipulate
>from behind the scenes, as to achieve a desired effect;
>orchestrate), implying that the correspondents' reports were meant
>to be seen as independent writings, but were in reality set up to
>say exactly what MacArthur wanted them to say.  If this is correct,
>there would be no implication that the Inchon landing was less than
>bona fide, only that the four correspondents' accounts of it were
>untrustworthy.
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
>Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012 6:05 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "staged"
>
>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."
>
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