Book by two NPC members deciphers journalese

Two long-time National Press Club members, Paul Dickson and Robert Skole, are the authors of Journalese -- A Dictionary for Deciphering the News, published by Marion Street Press.

Eerily: streets that are dark or deserted are always eerily silent. Jockeying: what politicians do when they’re busy elbowing out an opponent. Noted authority: said of anyone on the reporter’s speed dial or Twitter feed. These are just three examples from Journalese -- A Dictionary for Deciphering the News by Paul Dickson and Robert Skole, a new dictionary of journalistic buzzwords that looks at the true absurdity of journalists’ tired quips and clichés.

With an irreverent tone, the authors present hundreds of entries and include real-world examples. Covering such topics as incendiary leads, double entendres, media shoptalk, teasers, hidden agendas and tabloid-TV excesses, Journalese has won over veteran journalists weary of overblown media buzzwords.

“Good editors keep trying to kill clichés, but clichés outlive editors,” said Mervin Block, author of Writing Broadcast News and Weighing Anchors. “So Paul Dickson and Robert Skole have given clichés a good look.”

The authors define journalese as “the particular code in which journalists report a story. It is a pattern of language — a jargon — that never appears in normal conversation.”

But does that mean the authors approve of using journalese? “It was never our intention to stamp out journalese nor to bless it,” the authors write in the book’s introduction. “Our role was to describe and define it and, in the process, perhaps spike — or at least skewer — some of its more overwrought examples. As a dictionary it is descriptive rather than proscriptive.”

“Never has the deciphering of newspeak into plain English been so hilarious,” said Suzette Martinez Standring, author of The Art of Column Writing. “Journalese shows how the power of original phrasing fuels great reporting.”

Paul Dickson is the author of more than 60 books including Sputnik: The Shock of the Century; The Bonus Army: an American Epic (with Tom Allen); Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick and Words from The White House. Robert Skole has worked as a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent. They are the coauthors of The Volvo Guide to Halls of Fame.