Lingua Globa: How English Became 'Globish'

mp3 link

From yesterday's Radio West

7/7/09: The Power and Problems of Language

Doug Fabrizio (2009-07-07)

word. Photo by Melanie Cook on flickr.com

SALT LAKE CITY, UT (KUER) - NPR's Ombudsmen Alicia Shepard has been slammed with comments and e-mails after she explained in a blog post why NPR has decided not to use the word "torture" to describe the interrogation method known as waterboarding. Tuesday on RadioWest it's your turn to sound off on the subject. Shepard and others will join Doug to talk about the words we use in the issues we cover - the power and problems with language.

• NPR: Harsh Interrogation Techniques or Torture?
• On the Media: Torturous Wording

a side note:

If you want to skip the interview with Alicia Shepard (Neal Conan interviewed her on Talk of the Nation regarding this same subject, and she says pretty much the same things), then you can skip to about the halfway point in the program. Doug interviews William Lutz, which is when the discussion shifts from the debate regarding how the media handles the 'torture' vs. 'enhanced interrogation' issue to a discussion of the politics of language in general.

Comic From Language Log