More Sunspeak

On Friday I talked about Sun reporter Bradley Olson's dishonest use of language. It appears that his colleague Andrew Green uses the same linguistic tactics.

Lawmakers also approved a directive for O'Malley to cut $550 million from the
expected spending in next year's budget.

To translate from Sunspeak to English: "directive" means recommend.

The $550 million in cuts are not a directive from the General Assembly. In fact there are no cuts to be made, because THERE IS NO BUDGET TO CUT FROM YET! These are merely recommendations to the governor who is not bound by law to implement them. Using the word directive implies that the cuts have the force of law to them. They don't.

George Orwell in Politics and The English Language argued that deceptive language as evidenced by Messrs Olson and Green are the effect of foolish thinking and dishonest politics. We should expect as much from their employer, whose editors are the chief water carriers for Martin O'Malley, king of deceptive language and dishonest politics.

If you are interested in more honest reporting about this see WBAL Radio's report.