https://www.wired.com/1994/09/moon-land/
Pretty regularly, you’ll see or hear that “the government,” or “the media” or sometimes just a nebulous “they,” has something really juicy that they DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW.
In Eliot’s career, he came across many things that, in his journalistic judgment, weren’t newsworthy or couldn’t be substantiated. So, yes, technically, these were things Eliot DIDN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW. Actually, he didn’t care if you knew. He just wasn’t going to tell you.
There’s a word for this malady: paranoia. One group of guys even has a podcast about conspiracy theories called, of course, “Stuff they don’t want you to know.”
And by the way, the world of “news” has become so kaleidoscopic, especially when it comes to politics, that if one outlet DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW, another does.
This one takes for granted that the government doesn’t want you to know. By the way: Watch those apostrophe’s!
And we go to the video archives for Segment 66: Euphemisms. https://youtu.be/XYT4rbYLgrQ?si=PumFB3_aRkkCOM55
Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong" features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police.” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, menus, TV news graphics, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we can credit you properly. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com
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NOTE: Eliot and Lou Ann are available for speaking engagements, and can travel. Reach us through the comments section. Just think of all of your employees getting back to work on a Monday, their heads filled with all the ways we’ve shown them to be better communicators!