We are all familiar with Mr. Carlin's famous Seven Words You Can't Say on Television
They've varied not much over the years. According to the Supreme Court, they're not even really verboten, but still, we all know, as far as broadcast TV is concerned, you just can't say 'em.
Now, it appears, there is an eighth.
In recent weeks, the conventional media has done a surprisingly good job of questioning the facts averred by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in its advertisements. Claims about Medicare and welfare have been admirably vetted and parsed.
The results? "Inaccurate." "False." "Misleading." "Untrue." "Debunked." "Counter to fact."
I swear I've heard every synonym and euphemism for a certain word in the past fortnight. But never the word itself.
Why can't they say it? What is the ring-pass-not keeping the conventional media from uttering the word "lie?"
It's not partisan or unfair or imbalanced to call a thing what it is, and the electronic media has always shown a penchant for brevity over ornament. We don't hear of hundreds of "automobilists" stranded on the interstate by a traffic jam. They're "drivers" in "cars," not "vehicles." Short good.
So why are writers and producers and reporters and anchors doing multisyllabic gymnastics trying to avoid a perfectly suitable, simple word? Damn thing's got a thousand-year pedigree, so it's not like they'll be charged with jargon.
Oh, they love it when some guest pundit or partisan says it. They get almost wistful, watching another with the freedom to utter such a clear, gut-right monosyllable. It's as if Carlin and Standards and Practices slipped it right in the list between "--------er" and "----------er." They themselves may never let the forbidden verbum cross their lips.
Ladies. Gentlemen. These are facts and, as you report, "counter-facts." And, despite what you may have read, facts, and their checkers, one hopes, do not choose sides of the aisle.
I don't ask for a scathing screed, some extended "J'accuse!" riff or a learned analysis of Mormon tenets on bearing false witness.
I only ask for a decent respect for a fine, old English monosyllable that's done yeoman's work over the centuries.
It's really a good word. And you've got just the job for it right now.