Word Up
May 21, 2004
There's been a lot of talk recently about the exact definition of "torture." Some say it's an accurate descriptor of what happened to Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody. Others say those detainees were not tortured, but simply "abused," and that "torture" is something out of Saddam's dungeons. In a Newsday op-ed this week, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg mused over the invocation of the word "torture". He joins Bob to discuss the political uses and abuses of language, and his new book, Going Nucular: Language, Politics and Culture in Confrontational Times.
