[Linganth] CDC Language ban

[Judith Pine]

I’m interested in watching the information come out on this.  At this point, my sense is that what may have happened is some bureaucrats, as they prepare their budget request, have decided that if they avoid these words they will be more likely to get funded, and if they have these words in their budget they’ll be less likely to get funded. So it’s a pre-emptive sort of thing, not a prohibition coming from the administration but rather a bureaucratic strategy to deal with (probably quite accurate) anticipation of the administration’s response.

So this may be an effort to get things funded by re-labelling them without changes in content. I think, though, that it is that this strategy will backfire, as the labels re-shape the contents and everyone struggles in the dark to figure out what they are supposed to be doing. But how do you get bureaucrats to avoid “bureaucratic weasel-wording”?

And if we point out the changed wording and it results in the administration and the legislature cutting the funding for the programs, where does that get us? Not that weasel-wording is a good thing, but I’m not sure pointing it out solves the fundamental problem. Maybe, instead, publicize the positive results of programs that use these words, using the words in the titles? Ideally, successes in Republican-leaning areas if possible?


-          Judy

From: Linganth [mailto:linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] On Behalf Of Leila Monaghan
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2017 1:39 PM
To: Galey Modan
Cc: LINGANTH
Subject: Re: [Linganth] CDC Language ban

One way to fight this “ban on words” might be to publicize every document that the CDC publishes with changed words, pointing out the changes.  This ruling hampers everything from getting information about the elderly to the fight against Zika.

Leila

On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 2:15 PM, Galey Modan <gmodan at gmail.com<mailto:gmodan at gmail.com>> wrote:
Any ideas how we as an organization might fight this?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cdc-gets-list-of-forbidden-words-fetus-transgender-diversity/2017/12/15/f503837a-e1cf-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html?utm_term=.ad1d1b951b0d

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--
Leila Monaghan, PhD
Publisher, Elm Books
Laramie, Wyoming
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