Re: Suggestions? and MSC story to be on CBS- Misuse of language

[William V Lipton <liptonw@dteenergy.com>]

What are you planning to do about this?

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com

RADPROJECT@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 1/10/00 7:22:23 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> liptonw@dteenergy.com writes:
>
> << For the media, a "disaster" is something that:
>
>  (1) people are scared of, and
>
>  (2) people think could happen to them.
>
>  Whether or not it's "fair," the JCO event meets both of these criteria.
>
>  The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
>  It's not about dose, it's about trust. >>
> =======
> When language is misused to the extent it commonly is in societal and media
> reporting, one has crossed into a very dangerous area. George Orwell warned
> about "The Misuse [or Corruption]  of Language" in a very insightful essay
> over 40 years ago,  and further warned in his book "1984" about the meaning
> of words being manipulated to mean whatever some self-serving ministry of
> information wanted them to mean [i.e.: black-white].
>
> The word "disaster" has some implicit meaning in terms of magnitude of injury
> or loss that should not just be glossed over by equating one death to
> thousands of deaths in other cases, because the one death in an industrial
> accident involves radioactive material.
>
> While the loss of even one person in an accident is tragic,  I believe it not
> proper to casually equate it to disasters in which thousands died. This  is a
> corruption of language and thought that should not be tolerated, since it
> crosses over into propaganda.
>
> Stewart Farber
> Public Health Sciences
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