Did You Hear About the Senator Who Did Something Sketchy?
It does happen, occasionally.
Issue No. 29
There was an incident involving Senator Mulaney the other day, and I’ve been tracking headlines about it in newspapers of record and in soundbites on TV. It’s a scandal. A scandal, I tell you. Here’s a sample of what I managed to gather.
Excerpt one
Senator Mulaney denies reports he ate the chocolate cake that wasn’t his, insisting that when he last opened the fridge, the chocolate cake had already been eaten. When asked for comment, the senator said, “Mistakes were made.” When pushed he added, “An investigation will be conducted.”
—The Jacksonville Times
Excerpt two
We’re receiving reports that a fork belonging to Senator Mulaney appears to have connected with a piece of chocolate cake early Sunday morning. “I woke up in the morning and found myself holding the fork,” the clearly rattled senator said.
—The Jacksonville Chronicle
Excerpt three
Reports are coming in this evening about a scrumptious confection having diminished in size. Senator Mulaney denies the accusations insisting he’d targeted a cream pie, and that any ensuing collateral damage was obviously regrettable.
—The Jacksonville Gazette
Excerpt four
Some witnesses we interviewed on the scene spoke of Senator Mulaney eating the chocolate cake, while others insist he didn’t. A spokesperson for the senator’s office said that the situation “was complicated” and that they were still “gathering information,” adding that a committee would be convening early next month to look into the matter. The debate continues. Back to you in the studio.
—Jacksonville News 24
Excerpt five
Experts we reached out to all agree that it’s highly unlikely Senator Mulaney could have eaten the cake. “We’ve crunched the numbers and it’s just not possible,” several sources citing experts said. “It’s just not possible.”
—The Jacksonville Examiner
Excerpt six
In response to accusations of eating the chocolate cake, Senator Mulaney said in a statement that the cake had been placed in his line of sight by someone who has known connections to a radical group with a foreign, possibly Russian-sounding name. “Babushka something or other,” the senator said. “I’m telling you, they hate our values, and they hate our freedoms,” the senator added.
—The Jacksonville Tribune
Excerpt seven
“I’ve been traumatized,” Senator Mulaney read from a prepared statement. “I can’t even bear the smell of cake anymore,” the Senator added before storming off in tears while shouting, “I forgive you all. I forgive … you all.”
—The Jacksonville Journal
What do we learn from how the made-up Senator Mulaney’s transgression was reported by the media?
We learn that in each of the seven cases above, the unpleasant action was softened with spin, each of a different kind. Specifically,
The passive voice
Objects with agency
Euphemisms
Apparent neutrality
Vague attributions
Sinister associations
Restarting history
Language has the capacity to do three things. To model the world for us, to tell us how to think of ourselves, and to tell us how to think of others. Those can be helpful qualities.
Loaded language, on the other hand, is an attempt by someone to co-opt our thinking. To think on our behalf through obfuscation, through manipulation (of facts or of our emotions), and through misdirection.1
I want to share with you ten such patterns of language that I often see.
Ten patterns of loaded language
1 The passive voice
Examples:
Mistakes were made
Towns were hit
Lives were lost
Impact: Disconnects the action from whoever is committing it.2
What to do about it? Ask who the actor is, and why were we coy about naming it.
2 Objects with agency
Examples:
Hunger stalks the city
The past months claim region’s water system
Bullets find children at cafe
Impact: Disconnects the action from whoever is committing it.
What to do about it? Ask who the actor is.
3 Euphemisms
Examples:
Our industry is facing a wave of layoffs
It’s time [for regular people] to go on a low-carbon diet (British Petroleum)
We struck targets in an enemy stronghold
Impact: Makes us feel better about a contentious thing.
What to do about it? Call it what is—make it plain. See if it hits different.
4 Sinister associations
Examples:
Republican-backed bill
Counties in blue [Democrat-run] state now recommend masking
This is a battle between civilization and barbarism
Impact: Reminds us which team we’re on; silences people for fear of being associated with a label.
What to do about it? Ask if the association being pulled in has any bearing on the issue.
5 Apparent neutrality
Examples:
It’s complicated
We ask all sides to show restraint
We don’t know … maybe they did, maybe they didn’t
Impact: Distorts reality, implies an alternate reality.
What to do about it? Ask if it’s really complicated, or if we’re being vague on purpose.
6 Mistruths by omission
Example: The US became the fastest growing economy in the 19th century, with the South as its most prosperous region.3
Impact: Distorts reality, implies an alternate reality.
What to do about it? Ask what price was paid and by whom for this narrative to have played out the way it did.
7 Turning a fact into an opinion
Example: Attack kills 12 and injures dozens. On the other side of town, 30 allegedly killed, group says.
Impact: One event becomes fact, one becomes hearsay.
What to do about it? Ask for the evidence; parity in evidence should disqualify a disparity in reporting.
8 Vague attribution
Examples:
People are asking / People are complaining
Witnesses report
Science tells us
Impact: Manufactures authority.
What to do about it? Ask which people, which witnesses, which scientists? Notable ones? Multiple ones?
9 Concealing with precision
Example: Our data shows that [such and such] has skyrocketed by 300%
Impact: Manufactures authority.
What to do about it? Ask to see the actual data points, then interrogate them.
10 Restarting history
Example: Why are you so bitter all the time, Jimmy [Baldwin]?4
Impact: Recasts an offender as a victim or a savior.
What to do about it? Trace the causal link back to its origin instead of to some arbitrary beginning.
Takeaway
Question any line that attempts to soften a bad thing through the clever use of language (obfuscation). Question any line that casts the world as groups of people, with one that’s always virtuous and others that are always not, and then has you believing that everything that first group does is to be commended and that everything those others do is to be condemned (manipulation). Question any line that tries to pull a quick one on you by constantly redirecting your attention to something less important (misdirection).
Bookshelf Buddy v0.2 is now available
The little book-finding app experiment I teased last time is now available for download on the App Store. It’s been a productive five weeks teaching myself SwiftUI, and coding and publishing an app for the very first time. I attended a developer event yesterday to learn about performance profiling apps. It was all about catching performance bugs early when they’re otherwise not as apparent.
Bookshelf Buddy is still pre-release, so you’re welcome to test it out and reach out to me with questions and suggestions at any time. There are some limitations that the app has to deal with, plus some self-imposed, privacy-preserving ones like always processing photos on device. I’m hopeful detections will get better with time as I gather more data about bookshelves that don’t look like mine (and as I learn more).
I’ll be taking a short hiatus from this work over the next few weeks to focus on writing once again. The goal is to get the app to a solid version 1.0 within the next year. If you have expertise in computer vision and are interested in helping, get in touch. :)
Don't tie your identity to things you own.
―Seneca the Younger
Until next time.
Be well,
Ali
P.S. A guillotine paper cutter I’ve had my eye on was on sale the other day and I ordered it on impulse. The thing weighs a ton. I’ll be using it for the five tiny books I’m making for those of you who will be getting one next month.
Obfuscation, manipulation, and misdirection aren’t always bad, though in news reporting and in media they often are. Here are a few examples of how they can be helpful as literary devices, for self-preservation, or for persuasion.
Reach out if you’re an educator and you’d like me to cover this for your K-12 school or class. I’ve done it in the past and it’s been really constructive.
From a line someone says to Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton (the play) about how Jefferson got to be so rich so quickly.
From a line Baldwin mentions in his interview with Nikki Giovanni, I believe.
+ False binary: “Nobody would expect me to starve to death when there was food in the fridge”