Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Towards a Theory of Journalistic Malpractice
1. From A. N. Whitehead to Irving Kristol
Illusions and Self-Deception
Hard Facts and Soft Future
Adversarial Culture
"Sensations": From Silent Images to Talking Pictures
Art News and New Art
Of Nihilism and Mendacity
2. The Little Lie and the Big Story
Hitler's Hoax
The Counterfeiter's Fiction
Mysteries of the Piltdown Forgery
3. Difficulties in Grappling with Reality
The Reporter Rearranges the Scene
Janet Cooke and the Color of Truth
The Duping of Hersh's "Camelot"
Martin Walser's "Catechism of Correctness"
4. The New Shamanism

Part 2: Sex and Other Ongoing Titillations
5. The Ennui of Obscenity
Between Sexual Virility and Erotic Fatigue
Low Notes in High C
A-Word to S-Word, and their Synonyms
Of Ideology and Scatology
The Snafu Known as Swag
Filling Out the Missing Details
Private Parts, Public Lives
Alphabet Soup
Mr. Bloomberg's "$!*@&"
6. "O Propheta"
The Last Refuge
Porno Ploys and Crackable Codes
A*c*c*o*m*p*l*i*c*e*s, or: Participatory Obscenity
Steiner and Burgess On "Love"
7. Chaucer and a Choice of Taboo Words
8. Strong Odors, Blurred Pictures
9. Obsessions with the S-Word
10. The Case of the Missing F**r-L****r Word
11. Asterisks: From Byron to Madonna
12. Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad F-Word?
13. Tiger, the Times, and a Dreaded Black Asterisk
14. Morphing the A-Word
15. Terms of Agreement and Endearment
16. The Mergenthaler Option
17. A Matter of Illegitimacy
18. The Guard that Failed
19. The Desperate Search for "the Good Bits"
Sporting Language
Tom Jones and the Language Police
20. Swearing is the Curse

Part 3: Literary Origins and Popular Consequences
21. Sources of Malpractice
22. From Wordsworth to Orwell and Hemingway
23. The Prose We Write and Speak
24. Dealing with the Grandmother Tongue
The Continuing Domestication of Yiddishisms
Leo Rosten's Gallimaufry
25. Quotations that were Unquoted
26. Dirty Realism in the White House and Beyond
27. Towards a Vocabulary of Pop Diplomacy

Notes

Index

About the Author

Melvin J. Lasky

Reviews

-In taking on vulgarity, profanity, and obscenity in US and international news media, Lasky looks at the use of asterisks, ampersands, and exclamation marks to mask curse words. He also notes the migration of the asterisk in newspapers from curse words to become the equivalent of journalistic footnotes, e.g., in describing the -stain- on Monica Lewinsky's dress... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Comprehensive collections in journalism and literary criticism supporting graduate study and research.- --R. A. Logan, Choice -This is a very discursive volume, almost more like an enlightened and erudite discussion, from a man who has observed (and clipped!) the press for decades.- --Chris Sterling, editor Communication Booknotes Quarterly

"In taking on vulgarity, profanity, and obscenity in US and international news media, Lasky looks at the use of asterisks, ampersands, and exclamation marks to mask curse words. He also notes the migration of the asterisk in newspapers from curse words to become the equivalent of journalistic footnotes, e.g., in describing the "stain" on Monica Lewinsky's dress... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Comprehensive collections in journalism and literary criticism supporting graduate study and research." --R. A. Logan, Choice "This is a very discursive volume, almost more like an enlightened and erudite discussion, from a man who has observed (and clipped!) the press for decades." --Chris Sterling, editor Communication Booknotes Quarterly

"In taking on vulgarity, profanity, and obscenity in US and international news media, Lasky looks at the use of asterisks, ampersands, and exclamation marks to mask curse words. He also notes the migration of the asterisk in newspapers from curse words to become the equivalent of journalistic footnotes, e.g., in describing the "stain" on Monica Lewinsky's dress... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Comprehensive collections in journalism and literary criticism supporting graduate study and research." --R. A. Logan, Choice "This is a very discursive volume, almost more like an enlightened and erudite discussion, from a man who has observed (and clipped!) the press for decades." --Chris Sterling, editor Communication Booknotes Quarterly

"In taking on vulgarity, profanity, and obscenity in US and international news media, Lasky looks at the use of asterisks, ampersands, and exclamation marks to mask curse words. He also notes the migration of the asterisk in newspapers from curse words to become the equivalent of journalistic footnotes, e.g., in describing the "stain" on Monica Lewinsky's dress... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Comprehensive collections in journalism and literary criticism supporting graduate study and research." --R. A. Logan, Choice "This is a very discursive volume, almost more like an enlightened and erudite discussion, from a man who has observed (and clipped!) the press for decades." --Chris Sterling, editor "Communication Booknotes Quarterly "