GM: kinda, maybe, sorta - but not really the d-word

In our continuing series on semantics. . .

General Motors workers lifted their blockade of company headquarters in Oshawa early this morning as instructed by the court. However, in his ruling last Friday, Mr. Justice David Salmers of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice noted GM's parent in Detroit had shown "deceit-like behaviour" in announcing the shutdown of its truck plant two weeks after its Canadian negotiators signed a three-year contract with the union.

The judge also used the term, "almost deceitful business practice."

If a reporter were to hand in copy using terms like, "almost deceitful" and "deceit-like," an editor would demand: "Is it deceitful or not deceitful? Say what you mean. Help our readers out, why don't you?"

Maybe not quite in that language.

Of course, if it's in quotes, editors don't do that. They just shake their heads.

We understand the language of the law is fraught with connotations and consequences, potentially expensive consequences, beyond the ken of the layperson.

Let's just have a collective head shake, shall we?

Comments

[john k]

Years ago I learned to write a tight news release from an old pro (ex. Montreal Star).
He would have balled up this 'almost-deceitful' bumpf and thrown it at me, exclaiming, "This is horseshit, do it again!" (all in a Lunenburg Co. accent).