When I worked at WTMJ, I had the privilege of interviewing William Lutz, the author of “Doublespeak.”

Harpercollins.com writes:

In an increasingly Orwellian world, everyone should be armed with this hilarious, slyly subversive deconstruction of the slippery locutions of spinmeisters from all walks of public life. Doublespeak guru William Lutz (Doublespeak, The New Doublespeak) is uniquely qualified to bring you this supremely funny expos‚ of the juiciest ways THEY are trying to bamboozle you!

A sampling of Doublespeak Defined:

Bald n./ :hair disadvantaged
Men in Japan aren’t bald; they’re “hair disadvantaged,” according to The Japan Economic Journal.

Diet n./ :1.nutrional avoidance therapy 2. caloric reduction program

Waste paper basket n./ :user-friendly, space-effective, flexible desk side sortation unit

Lutz himself writes:

Doublespeak is language that only pretends to say something; it’s language that hides, evades or misleads.

With doublespeak, no truck driver is the worst driver, just the “least-best” driver, and bribes and kickbacks are called “rebates” or “fees for product testing.” Even robbery can be magically transformed with doublespeak, as a bank in Texas did when it declared a robbery of an ATM to be an “authorized transaction.” Willie Sutton would have loved to have heard that.

Today’s read is from Mark Alexander. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Recently, I came across some Leftspeak redefinitions debunked by our friends at the Media Research Center, a reliable watchdog exposing Leftmedia propagandists and their distortion of facts.

MRC notes satirically: “As everyone knows, the news media knows what’s best for us and they always tell the truth. The only problem is that they use really big and complicated words that we simple folk just don’t understand. How will you ever keep up? Well, don’t worry! We prepared this special translation guide just for you, so the next time you’re watching the news you’ll be able to follow along!”

For your clarification:

Read the entire column here.