Word Warriors

I'm not a lawyer, but I do know words. -- Pug Mahoney

   Lawyers argue at great length over what words may or may not mean as they defend their clients. That's what they do, and some are more adept at the game of word play than others.
   For journalists, however, the goal is not to score points but to inform. For them, truth is not variable but straightforward.
  Even so, there is room for analysis and interpretation of what an event or action may mean and what its effect may be. Typically, these stories are labeled as analysis or commentary. Moreover, the type is set with ragged right margins, so readers can tell at a glance that it's not a straight news report, which would be set in what's called "justified" type.
   Practitioners of both professions can be called word warriors, since their mission is to bring information to the general public (journalists) or to persuade a judge or jury of what they perceive as truth and to either prosecute or defend whoever is charged (lawyers).
   For journalists, however, truth is not variable. Lawyers are like Humpty Dumpty, who famously said, "My words mean just what I choose them to mean, neither more nor less."
   News reporters are more like Alice, struggling through a Wonderland of debaters insisting, like Humpty Dumpty, that they are the linguistic masters of what they say.
   Too many lawyers seem to believe that because they are lawyers, they know what words mean, or were intended to mean, or should mean, or will mean once the lawyer explains what the words really mean.
   As if readers and listeners can't know what is meant until the lawyer tells them what is meant. But different lawyers might have different explanations of what a word means. Or, as Rudy Giuliani put it, "Truth is variable."
   As if the rest of us can't understand the Constitution until a lawyer translates it.
   Reality check: Most of those who wrote the Constitution were not lawyers. Benjamin Franklin was a printer and a writer. George Washington was a surveyor, soldier and a farmer. Most of the rest were merchants or plantation owners. All told, just 32 of the 55 men who framed the Constitution were lawyers.
   The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written for clarity, to carry a message easily understandable to all.
   Many lawyers today still strive for clarity and understandability in what they write. Unfortunately, too many also go into politics, where the goal is to persuade and to win.
   It's up to journalists to report the true meaning of what they say and do, and to expose their linguistic machinations for what they are -- attempts to mislead for their own benefit, not for the benefit of the society they claim to serve.