Todd Gitlin
American writer, media critic, and academic
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
High among television's defaults was the endless recycling of euphemism. The small screen is over-renowned for indelible pictures — forgettable "wallpaper" takes up far more time — but at least as important is the way all media bend language. Even in the age of satellite telephones and uplinks, words come first. The power of the media is, crucially, the power to name. Was the civil-rights movement the "freedom struggle" or the product of "outside agitators"? A name pulls a train of implications. A euphemism emits a haze of obfuscation.
—Todd Gitlin, American writer, media critic, and academic, The American Prospect, June, 2003
Posted on November 4, 2003 at 11:27 AM
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