Truthiness

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Stephen Colbert announces that "The WØRD" of the night is truthiness, during the premiere episode of The Colbert Report.
Stephen Colbert announces that "The WØRD" of the night is truthiness, during the premiere episode of The Colbert Report.

Truthiness is a satirical term coined by television comedian Stephen Colbert[1] to describe things that a person claims to know intuitively, instinctively, or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts (similar to the meaning of "bellyfeel", a Newspeak term from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four). Colbert created this definition of the word during the inaugural episode (October 17, 2005) of his satirical television program The Colbert Report, as the subject of a segment called "The WØRD". It was named word of the year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster.

By using the term as part of his satirical routine, Colbert sought to criticize the tendency to rely upon "truthiness" and its use as an appeal to emotion and tool of rhetoric in contemporary socio-political discourse. He particularly applied it to President Bush's modus operandi in nominating Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and in deciding to invade Iraq as well as the rationale behind online encyclopedia project Wikipedia (see Wikiality).

Contents

[edit] Origin

Stephen Colbert introduced the word truthiness on the premiere episode of The Colbert Report, on October 17, 2005. According to Newsweek, he came up with the idea of truthiness just moments before filming for the show began.[2] He used truthiness in a monologue that emphasized its role as an ironic political polemic compressed into a single word, as demonstrated in the following excerpts:[3]

“ I will speak to you in plain, simple English. And that brings us to tonight's word: 'truthiness.' Now I'm sure some of the 'word police,' the 'wordinistas' over at Webster's are gonna say, 'hey, that's not a word'. Well, anyone who knows me knows I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books.

I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart. And that's exactly what's pulling our country apart today. 'Cause face it, folks; we are a divided nation. Not between Democrats and Republicans, or conservatives and liberals, or tops and bottoms. No, we are divided between those who think with their head, and those who know with their heart.

Consider Harriet Miers. If you 'think' about Harriet Miers, of course her nomination's absurd. But the president didn't say he 'thought' about his selection. He said this:

(video clip of President Bush:) 'I know her heart.'

Notice how he said nothing about her brain? He didn't have to. He feels the truth about Harriet Miers.

And what about Iraq? If you think about it, maybe there are a few missing pieces to the rationale for war. But doesn't taking Saddam out feel like the right thing?

 ”

Colbert gave an out-of-character interview with The Onion's A.V. Club, in which he responded to the question, "What's your take on the 'truthiness' imbroglio that's tearing our country apart?" by elaborating on the critique he intended to convey with the word truthiness:[4]

“ Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don't mean the argument over who came up with the word...

It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty. People love the President because he's certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don't seem to exist. It's the fact that he's certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?...

Truthiness is 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.' It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.

 ”

However, Colbert had unknowingly[2] reinvented the word truthiness, which has a history in literature and appears in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), where truthy, the word from which truthiness is derived, is defined as a variation of straightforward truthfulness, and indicated as rare or dialectal. The prior existence of the word was first pointed out by linguist and OED consultant Benjamin Zimmer.[5][6]

[edit] Popularity and widespread use

Colbert invented its new definition and popularized it among a mainstream audience. Truthiness was selected by the American Dialect Society as the 2005 Word of the Year, and by The New York Times as one of nine words that captured the spirit of 2005. Global Language Monitor, which tracks trends in languages, named truthiness and wikiality the top two TeleWORDS (television buzzwords) of 2006,[7] the first time two words from the same show have made the list.[8] "Truthiness" has also been discussed in the Washington Post, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, Editor & Publisher, Salon, The Huffington Post, and Chicago Reader, and on ABC's Nightline, CBS's 60 Minutes, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. In January 2006, truthiness was featured as a Word of the Week by the website of the Macmillan English Dictionary.[9]

[edit] CNN and ABC News coverage

Six days after Colbert introduced truthiness, CNN's Reliable Sources featured a discussion of The Colbert Report by host Howard Kurtz, who played a clip of Colbert mentioning truthiness.[10]

On the same day, ABC's Nightline also reported on truthiness, prompting Colbert to respond by saying: "You know what was missing from that piece? Me. Stephen Colbert. But I'm not surprised. Nightline's on opposite me..."

[edit] The New York Times coverage

In its October 25, 2005 issue, eight days after the premiere episode of the Report, The New York Times ran its third article on The Colbert Report, penned by Alessandra Stanley and titled "Bringing Out the Absurdity of the News".[11] The article specifically discussed the segment on truthiness, although the Times misreported the word as trustiness. In its November 1, 2005 issue, the Times ran a correction clarifying that the Wørd had been truthiness, not trustiness. On the next episode of the Report, Colbert took the Times to task for the error, (incorrectly[12]) pointing out (with ironic relish) that trustiness is "not even a word".

In its December 25, 2005 issue, the Times again discussed truthiness, this time as one of nine words that had captured the year's zeitgeist, in an article titled "2005: In a Word; Truthiness" by Jacques Steinberg. In crediting truthiness, Steinberg said, "the pundit who probably drew the most attention in 2005 was only playing one on TV: Stephen Colbert".[13]

In the January 22, 2006 issue, columnist Frank Rich used the term truthiness seven times, with credit to Colbert, in a column titled "Truthiness 101: From Frey to Alito", to discuss Republican portrayals of several issues (including the Samuel Alito nomination, Katrina response, and Jack Murtha's wartime record). Rich emphasized the extent to which the word truthiness had quickly become a cultural fixture, writing, "The mock Comedy Central pundit Stephen Colbert's slinging of the word 'truthiness' caught on instantaneously last year precisely because we live in the age of truthiness." Editor & Publisher magazine reported on Rich's use of truthiness in his column, saying he "tackled the growing trend to 'truthiness,' as opposed to truth, in the U.S."[14]

The January 30, 2006 issue of the Times included an article titled "How Oprahness Trumped Truthiness" by David Carr, although the article itself did not refer to truthiness. Because the editors write the headlines in all stories for the Times, the truthiness reference must have been added by the editors to describe the theme of Carr's article.[15]

[edit] American Dialect Society's Word of the Year

On January 6, 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that truthiness was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year.[16] The Society described its rationale as follows:

"In its 16th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year. First heard on The Colbert Report, a satirical mock news show on The Comedy Central Channel [sic], truthiness refers to the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. As Stephen Colbert put it, 'I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart.'"

Apparently after realizing that truthiness was found in the Oxford English Dictionary, the Society later changed the wording of this press release on their website, from "First heard on The Colbert Report..." to "Recently popularized on The Colbert Report..."

[edit] Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year

Colbert's Revised dictionary page including "Truthiness"
Colbert's Revised dictionary page including "Truthiness"

On December 10, 2006, the Merriam-Webster dictionary announced that truthiness was selected as its 2006 Word of the Year, based on a reader poll, by a 5-to-1 margin over the second-place word google.[17] "We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs," said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. "'Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue."[18] However, despite winning Word of the Year, the word does not appear in the 2006 edition of the Merriam-Webster English Dictionary. In response to this omission, during "the word" segment on December 12, 2006 Colbert issued a new page 1344 for the tenth edition of the Merriam Webster dictionary that featured truthiness. To make room for the definition of "truthiness" (including a portrait of Colbert), the definition for the word "try" was removed with Colbert stating that it should have "tried harder." He also sarcastically told viewers to 'not' download the new page and 'not' glue it in the new dictionary in libraries and schools.

[edit] Alleged snubbing by the Associated Press, and Colbert's response

Colbert putting Michael Adams "On Notice" for defining "truthiness" in a news story without mentioning Colbert.
Colbert putting Michael Adams "On Notice" for defining "truthiness" in a news story without mentioning Colbert.

The Associated Press reported on the American Dialect Society's selection of truthiness as the Word of the Year,[19] including the following comments by one of the voting linguists:

Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said "truthiness" means "truthy, not facty." "The national argument right now is, one, who's got the truth and, two, who's got the facts," he said. "Until we can manage to get the two of them back together again, we're not going to make much progress."

On each of the first four episodes of the Report after the selection of truthiness as Word of the Year, Colbert lamented that news reports neglected to acknowledge him as the source of the word. On the first of these episodes, he added Michael Adams to his "On Notice" board, and Associated Press reporter Heather Clark, the author of the article, to his "Dead to Me" board.[20] On the third of these episodes, he ranked the AP at the top of the "Threat-Down",[21] one of few entries ever to gain the number one spot in place of bears. On the following episode he called Michael Adams and asked for an apology. Though Michael Adams never apologized, Colbert "accepted" his "apology", and took him "off notice".

[edit] The Associated Press response to Colbert

On January 13, the first day after the four-day run of abuse of the AP on the Report, the AP ran a story about The Colbert Report being upset about being snubbed by the AP, in an article titled "Colbert: AP the biggest threat to America".[22] As he has in the past, Colbert remained in character in an interview for the story, and used it to further the political satire of truthiness; excerpts of the story are:

"...When an AP story about the designation sent coast to coast failed to mention Colbert, he began a tongue-in-cheek crusade, not unlike the kind his muse Bill O'Reilly might lead in all seriousness."
"'It's a sin of omission...' Stephen Colbert told the AP on Thursday....'It's like Shakespeare still being alive and not asking him what Hamlet is about,' he said."
"The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition for 'truthy' dating back to the 1800s....'The fact that they looked it up in a book just shows that they don't get the idea of truthiness at all,' Stephen Colbert said Thursday. 'You don't look up truthiness in a book, you look it up in your gut.'"
"Though slight, the difference of Colbert's definition and the OED's is essential. It's not your typical truth, but, as The New York Times wrote, 'a summation of what (Colbert) sees as the guiding ethos of the loudest commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.'"
"Colbert, who referred on his program to the AP omission as a 'journalistic travesty,' said Thursday that it was similar to the much-criticized weapons of mass destruction reporting leading up to the Iraq War. 'Except,' he said, 'people got hurt this time.'"

On January 14, Clark herself responded in an article titled "Exclusive 'News'—I'm dead to Stephen Colbert."[23] She furthered the rise of "truthiness" in published English in conceding, "Truthiness be told, I never had seen The Colbert Report until my name graced its 'Dead to Me' board this week....But I will say that I watched Colbert's show for the first time...It was funny. And that's not just truthy. That's a fact."

[edit] James Frey controversy

The Chicago Tribune published an editorial in its January 16, 2006 issue titled "The Truthiness Hurts," crediting the rise of truthiness as serendipitously providing an apt description of the Oprah Book Club controversy over James Frey's semi-fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces.[24] Truthiness was also used to describe the Frey controversy by USA Today in its January 15, 2006 issue,[25] by several other publications including The New York Times[26] and by the television news program Nightline on its October 23 and January 26 editions.

Oprah Winfrey also discussed truthiness with Frank Rich on her show, in reference to the Frey controversy and the column "Truthiness 101" Rich had recently published in the New York Times.[27] They also mentioned Colbert's role in popularizing "truthiness."[15]

On January 27, MSNBC ran a commentary titled "Oprah strikes a blow for truthiness: Do facts really matter? Ask Winfrey, James Frey or Stephen Colbert," making the case that Winfrey's about-face on Frey's book was a "small (and belated) but bold nudge back out of the proud halls of truthiness," but also opportunistic and too little too late.[28]

[edit] Additional attention

On January 5, 2006, one day before its announcement as the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year, etymology professor Anatoly Liberman began an hour-long program on public radio by discussing truthiness and predicting that it would be included in dictionaries in the next year or two.[29] His prediction seemed to be on track when the website of the Macmillan English Dictionary featured truthiness as its Word of the Week at the end of January.[9] The February 13, 2006, issue of Newsweek magazine featured an article on The Colbert Report titled "The Truthiness Teller."[2] It recounted the career of the word truthiness since its popularization by Colbert as described above. On January 31, 2006, Arianna Huffington used truthiness on the Huffington Post.[30] Huffington later appeared as a guest on the March 1, 2006, episode of The Colbert Report. She challenged Colbert on his claim that he had invented the word truthiness. During the interview, Colbert declared, "I'm not a truthiness fanatic; I'm truthiness's father." Huffington corrected him, citing Wikipedia, that he had merely "popularized" the term. Regarding her source, Colbert responded: "Fuck them."[31] The New York Times published two letters on the dinner in its May 3, 2006 edition, under the headline "Truthiness and Power".[32] Liberal Party of Canada leadership contender Ken Dryden used truthiness as an extensive theme in a speech in the House of Commons. The speech dealt critically with the current government's Universal Child Care Plan.[33] Dryden defined truthiness as "something that is spoken as if true that one wants others to believe is true, that said often enough with enough voices orchestrated in behind it, might even sound true, but is not true." In 2006, after Colbert delivered the commencement speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, he was presented with both an honorary degree and a purple T-shirt bearing a logo that reads, "Veritasiness Tour", creating a semi-Latinized version of truthiness.[34] MoveOn and Brave New Films launched a satirical petition campaign against Stephen Colbert and Truthiness entitled "Stop the Falsiness" in anticipation of MoveOn founder Eli Pariser's appearance on The Report. On August 14, 2006, on the Glenn Beck television program featured on CNN Headline News, in describing the 60 Minutes interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Glenn said, "I hate to engage in what Stephen Colbert calls 'truthiness' but that's pretty much all I got..."[35] On August 27, 2006, the Global Language Monitor announced that truthiness was the top television buzzword of 2006.[7][8] On January 1, 2007, Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan released its annual list of words it wants banned from the English language. "Truthiness" was among them, along with other words like "awesome" and celebrity couple nicknames like "Brangelina" and "TomKat." In response, on January 8, 2007 Colbert stated that Lake Superior State University was an attention seeking second-tier state school.[36]

[edit] Describing President Bush in person

At the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, with President Bush in attendance, Stephen Colbert describes Bush by reiterating part of his definition of truthiness.
At the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, with President Bush in attendance, Stephen Colbert describes Bush by reiterating part of his definition of truthiness.

On April 29, 2006, Colbert was the featured guest at the White House correspondents' dinner and, in President Bush's immediate presence, described Bush's thought processes by repeating almost verbatim some of his original description of truthiness. Colbert's effort at the WHCA dinner prompted truthiness to hit a new popularity peak in blog postings following the dinner[37]—even though he did not actually use the word at the dinner.

Editor and Publisher again used truthiness to describe Colbert's criticism of President Bush, in an article published the same day entitled "Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner—President Not Amused?" E&P reported that the "blistering comedy 'tribute' to President Bush... left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close" and that many people at the dinner "looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting—or too much speaking 'truthiness' to power."[38] E&P reported a few days later that its coverage of Colbert at the dinner drew "possibly its highest one-day traffic total ever", and published a letter to the editor asserting that "Colbert brought truth wrapped in truthiness."[39]

On the same weekend, The Washington Post published transcripts of segments from The Colbert Report under the heading "dept. of truthiness;"[40] Salon covered Colbert at the White House dinner in an article entitled "The Truthiness Hurts: Stephen Colbert's brilliant performance unplugged the Bush myth machine—and left the clueless D.C. press corps gaping;"[41] and the popular news program 60 Minutes on CBS featured an interview with Colbert by Morley Safer, in which Safer discussed truthiness.[42]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dick Meyer. "The Truth Of Truthiness", CBS News, 2006-12-12. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
  2. ^ a b c Marc Peyser. "The Truthiness Teller", Newsweek, 2006-02-13. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  3. ^ The Colbert Report: Videos: The Word (Truthiness) (2005-10-17). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  4. ^ Nathan Rabin. "Interview: Stephen Colbert", A.V. Club, 2006-01-26. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  5. ^ Language Log: Truthiness Or Trustiness?. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  6. ^ Benjamin Zimmer homepage. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  7. ^ a b ""Truthiness," "Wikiality" named TV words of year", Reuters, August 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-28.
  8. ^ a b 'Truthiness' and 'Wikiality' Named Top Television Buzzwords of 2006 Followed by 'Katrina', 'Katie,' and 'Dr. McDreamy'. Global Language Monitor (August 27, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-28.
  9. ^ a b Word of the Week Archive. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  10. ^ Howard Kurtz (transcript). "CNN Reliable Sources", CNN, 2005-10-23. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  11. ^ Allesandra Stanley. "Bringing Out The Absurdity Of the News", The New York Times, 2005-10-25. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  12. ^ Many dictionaries (e.g. American Heritage, Merriam-Webster, New Oxford Dictionary of English, etc.) offer definitions for trustiness.
  13. ^ Jacques Steinberg. "2005: In A Word: Truthiness", The New York Times, 2005-12-25. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  14. ^ "'NY Times' Frank Rich Taking Book Leave", Editor and Publisher, 2006-01-22. Retrieved on 2006-01-23.
  15. ^ a b David Carr. "How Oprahness Trumped Truthiness", The New York Times, 2006-01-30. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  16. ^ Truthiness Voted 2005 Word of the Year by American Dialect Society (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  17. ^ Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2006. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
  18. ^ Adam Gorlick. "Colbert's 'truthiness' pronounced Word of the Year", AP/Houston Chronicle, 2006-12-08.
  19. ^ Heather Clark. "Honestly, "truthiness" is selected the word of 2005", The Seattle Times / Associated Press, 2006-01-07. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  20. ^ The Colbert Report: Videos: On Notice (A Glaring Omission). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  21. ^ The Colbert Report: Videos: Threatdown. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  22. ^ Jake Coyle. "Colbert: AP the biggest threat to America", CBS News / Associated Press, 2006-01-13. Retrieved on 2006-11-07.
  23. ^ Exclusive "News": I'm Dead to Stephen Colbert (2006-01-14). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  24. ^ Chicago Tribune editorial board. "The Truthiness Hurts", The Chicago Tribune, 2006-01-16. Retrieved on 2006-02-01.
  25. ^ Marco R. della Cava. "Truth falls to "Pieces" after suspect memoir", USA Today, 2006-01-15. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  26. ^ Frank Rich. "Truthiness 101: From Frey to Alito", The New York Times, 2006-01-22. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  27. ^ The Oprah Winfrey Show (transcript) (2006-01-26). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  28. ^ Jon Bonné. "Oprah strikes a blow for truthiness", MSNBC, 2006-01-27. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  29. ^ Where words come from (2006-01-05). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  30. ^ Will America's New Love Affair With the Truth Extend to Bush's SOTU Speech? (2006-01-31). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  31. ^ The Colbert Report: Videos (Arianna Huffington) (2006-03-01). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  32. ^ Gloria D. Howard; William M. Phillian. "Truthiness and Power", The New York Times, 2006-05-03. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  33. ^ Truthiness (2006-05-04). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  34. ^ E&P Staff. "Colbert Tells College Graduates: Get Your Own TV Show", Editor and Publisher, 2006-06-04. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  35. ^ Glenn Beck. "GLENN BECK: What`s the President of Iran Really Like?; Could another Massive Terror Attack Happen", CNN News, 2006-08-14. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
  36. ^ John-Paul Gravelines. "Attention-Starved Second-Tier State University?", SooToday.com, 2007-01-09. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
  37. ^ Trend results: Truthiness. Retrieved on 2006-05-02.
  38. ^ E&P Staff. "Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner—President Not Amused?", Editor and Publisher, April 29, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-05-07.
  39. ^ E&P Staff. "Tuesday's Letters: Colbert Offensive, Colbert Mediocre, Colbert a Hero, Colbert Vicious, Colbert Brave", Editor and Publisher, 2006-05-02. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  40. ^ "Dept. of Truthiness: The Colbert Rapport", The Washington Post, 2006-04-30. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  41. ^ Michael Scherer. "The truthiness hurts", Salon, 2006-05-01. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
  42. ^ The Colbert Report: Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's "Fake" Newsman (2006-04-30). Retrieved on 2006-06-04.

[edit] External links

Look up truthiness in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
v • d • e
The Colbert Report

Elements: Better Know a District • Truthiness

Related: Episodes (2005, 06, 07) • Correspondents' Dinner • The Daily Show
Stephen Colbert (character) • Stephen Colbert (actor)

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