Reader Spotlight: ''Words Have Great Power"

On New Years Day we ran an article about a school that released its annual "banned words" list, a collection of overused phrases that should be scratched from everyday vocabulary.

While many of the selections were humorous and harmless, such as "boneless wings" and "YOLO", other were more serious and, well, annoying ("fiscal cliff", anyone?)

But Safety Harbor Patch reader Gary Moos had a unique take on the whole topic of banned words, and he provided some words of wisdom in his comment on the piece:

Because words have great power, to sway our opinions, the news media has a special obligation to coin terms responsibly. The connotations of multi word terms are sometimes muddied by the connotations of their individual parts. 

Sometimes  the  choice of terms paints a picture thats slants our feelings toward the subject of a news story.  Example, which  term is more accurate; "rape victim" or "rape survivor"?  They may both be accurate. But one is empowering and one serves to further victimize. 

The inattention to the connotations of multi word terms has lead to what I believe is one of the most ill-conceived terms of all times, "suicide bomber." 

The word "suicide" often elicits sympathy and avoids the fact that terrorism and murder are the most important part of the story. A more accurate term would be murder/suicide bomber, or  better yet, "terrorist/ suicide bomber."  

So "suicide bomber" and "rape victim" get my vote for two phases that should no longer be used.

What do you think about Gary's comment? Do you have any words or terms you would like to see banned from our vocabulary? Let us know in the comments below.