:: Spinspeak Letter ::

Exposing Deliberate Pollution of the English Language: Spinspeak Rots the Mind.

“Bury forever what some Neanderthals call the language of reality. We know that breeds nothing but envy and hate and fear and conflict. Bring home the language of happiness. We know that brings all of us together in a great multi-cultural bouillabaisse...”

--Spinmeister-in-Chief Marvin Runnymede, Ultimate Severance

“Too bad about his terrible accident. Always hard on da family.”

--Mobster Joey “the Boy” Lasagna, Ultimate Severance

Some Latest Spinspeak Mintings for the Spinspeak II Supplement:

earmarks=innocent-sounding congressional cosmeticspeak for vaguely related pork inserted into legislation on behalf of a legislator’s constituencies and/or “contributing” special interests.

buzz marketing=adspeak for word of mouth promotion via paid talkers

miscount=universal fuzzball for excusing deliberately slanted numerical reports as a simple mistake

hedonic adaptation=psychobabble for rapid deterioration of happiness and return to general dissatisfaction after something good occurs in your life such as a raise in pay, a promotion or demise of a rich aunt.

:: welcome to Spinspeak Letter :: bloghome | Letters | Spinspeak Books & Our Dictionary | Contact Us | About Us ::

[::::::.Spinspeak.::::::]
->What is Spinspeak
->The Detector

[::::..The Spiniverse..::::]
:: Fighting Spinspeak[>]
:: Spinspeak In War[>]
:: Campaign 2004[>]
:: Spinspeak in Business[>]
:: Spinspeak in Health and Education[>]
:: Dictionary of Language Pollution[>]

[::::..Counterspin..::::]
:: Andrew Sullivan's Blog[>]
:: Drudge[>]
:: InstaPundit[>]
:: Media Research Center[>]
:: Opinion Journal[>]
:: Overlawyered[>]
:: Wordsmyth[>]
:: Ann Coulter[>]
:: Wizbang[>]
:: HughHewitt.com[>]
:: Ed Driscoll.com[>]
:: The Campaign Desk[>]
:: SteyneOnline[>]
:: Neal Boortz[>]
:: RealClearPolitics[>]
:: Sot On[>]
:: Power Line[>]
:: BreakfastwithBwana[>]
:: Site Feed

[::..archive..::]

:: Friday, July 16, 2004 ::

Plausible Deniability: Corporate Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card

The indictment of former Enron CEO Ken Lay in the landmark Enron Scandal brings to the test the corporate plea: I didn’ know ‘nuttin.

The corporate spin phrase for this approach is “plausible deniability” or “the view from 30,000 feet.”

Essentially, Lay’s defense is that he had no idea that the bad guys down the hall were cooking the books. As far as he knew, everything was okey-dokey. Calling his chief financial officer a “liar and a thief,” Lay offered the following Clintonian self-exculpation: to the extent that I did not know what he was doing ... then indeed, I cannot take responsibility."

:: James Baar 7/16/2004 05:44:00 PM [+] ::
...