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When it comes to information and inspiration for news stories, there are sources…and then there are wags. And over the years, the wags have contributed prodigiously to journalists in need. Usually, their contributions come in the form of quips. But who, in fact, are these wags? Bob sets out on a transnational investigation to find out.
A free forum of ideas suggests a back-and-forth exchange between individuals with various perspectives. But what happens when people are sequestered to separate discursive spaces on the basis of their ideas? As we're seeing all over the Internet these days, debate breaks down, and in its place we find simply a multiplicity of "echo chambers." Brooke talks with University of Chicago professor Cass Sunstein about the metaphorical reverberations of the phrase.
There's the geological definition of the word quagmire. And then there's that other meaning. In the American media, the word is becoming increasingly linked to Iraq, a place that could hardly be characterized as "a wet, boggy ground." Brooke chats with author and editor Tom Engelhardt about the Q-word and its usage.
"Homeland" is a new word to most Americans, introduced to us in the post-9/11 months. It’s probably invoked a hundred times a day inside the beltway, and yet despite very real fears of external and internal terrorist attacks, it still has no currency on the American Street. As part of our occasional word watch series, OTM asks Leon Wynter to look into it.
In the defense community, the phrase "weapons of mass destruction" generally refers to chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Recently that phrase has been popping up all over the media and there are some who think there may be a confusion over the definition. Host Brooke Gladstone talks to Tim Noah about why he thinks "weapons of mass destruction" should only be used to describe nukes.
Journalists can be a lazy bunch. This might be one explanation as to how the phrase “so-called 20th hijacker” became so ubiquitous to describe accused Sept. 11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Countless news organizations are using it - but is anyone else? Brooke asks USA Today's Toni Locy.
Can you define ‘kerfuffle’? Neither could we, until the word caused a kerfuffle at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. A reporter used the word in an article, and some readers balked at seeing such an obscure word in their paper. Whatever happened to eschewing obfuscation? Bob talks to journalism writing coach Jim Stasiowski. (By the way, ‘kerfuffle’ means disorder, uproar, or confusion.)
In the wake of 911 use of words like jihad and crusade, often loaded, have sparked heavy criticism, even protest, in America. In the Islamic world, the linguistic ambiguities of the Koran, and Arabic, in general, are being exploited in an attempt to reconcile religious and political agendas. Bob talks to Amir Taheri, editor of Politique Internationale about the power of words.
