{"id":193,"date":"2023-04-21T14:10:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T14:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ncte\/?page_id=193"},"modified":"2023-04-27T14:45:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:45:43","slug":"doublespeak","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ncte\/exhibits\/doublespeak\/","title":{"rendered":"Doublespeak"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Our first award, in the category of the misuse of euphemisms, goes to Colonel Opfer, USAF, a press officer in Cambodia, who, after a U.S. bombing raid, told some reporters: ‘You always write it’s bombing, bombing, bombing. It’s not<\/em>\u00a0bombing! It’s air support.'”
\nFrom “The Doublespeak Awards,”\u00a0Public Doublespeak Newsletter<\/em>, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1974)<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The pervasiveness of doublespeak in mass media was brought to NCTE’s attention at its 1971 convention in Las Vegas. In\u00a0Doublespeak: A Brief History, Definition, and Bibliography, with a List of Award Winners<\/em>, Walker Gibson, the incoming president, recalls Richard Ohmann, Resolutions Committee chair, approaching him before the convention’s annual business meeting. “We have some dandy resolutions for you,” he said (1991, p. 5). These resolutions directly addressed “commercial propaganda” and “semantic distortion” and would lead NCTE to take a national role in exposing “public lying” in the media:<\/p>\n

RESOLVED, that the National Council of Teachers of English find means to study dishonest and inhumane uses of language and literature by advertisers, to bring offenses to public attention, and to propose techniques for preparing children to cope with commercial propaganda.<\/p>\n

RESOLVED, that the National Council of Teachers of English find means to study relations of language to public policy, to keep track of, publicize, and combat semantic distortion by public officials, candidates for office, political commentators, and all those who transmit through the mass media.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gibson described that those at the business meeting were divided on the resolutions, which would certainly drag NCTE into a politically-charged environment. Despite these concerns, the resolutions passed. “The meeting was not very well attended, and I remember thinking gratefully that a lot of people who might be opposed were out in lobbies at the slot machine,” Gibson joked (1991, p. 6).<\/p>\n

George Orwell’s classic\u00a01984<\/em>\u00a0inspired the Council to refer to any language that violates their resolutions as “doublespeak.” In November 1972, on Gibson’s suggestion, the Committee on Public Doublespeak was formed (Hook, p. 255). Its charge was to develop classroom activities to help teachers educate students on doublespeak and its dangers. In addition, the committee also had to expose those who were manipulating language. It is this latter function that attracted the attention of the national news.<\/p>\n

To fulfill this charge, the committee created the Doublespeak Award, which is described on\u00a0NCTE’s website\u00a0as an “ironic tribute to public speakers who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered.” Politicians, advertisers, and military officers are often the recipients of these awards. In 1975, the committee also established the NCTE George Orwell Award to recognize individuals who contribute to the “critical analysis of public discourse” rather than perpetuate doublespeak.<\/p>\n

While these awards continue today, the Committee on Public Doublespeak has been renamed the Public Language Award Committee. To learn more about the history of this committee and its founders, take a look at the featured topics below:<\/p>\n