On Don Watson's Death Sentence (Language, Action and Meaning‪)‬

A few months ago a press reference to Don Watson's recent book Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language, (1) had it 'selling like hot cakes'. At least among many of those with a special interest in public language, Watson has tapped into a deep-seated sense of exasperation. Back then, Watson's concern was not to target spin. It was as if he took for granted that this particular corruption of public language had been corralled by politicians. Death Sentence turns more directly to the deadening of language in the public voice. It is directed both to the corporation and its clones in the entire sphere of public administration. By Watson's account, this language is now a characteristic of the underlying or economic framework of contemporary government. While politics as such certainly draws on it, corporate language, however unappealing it may be, is not of itself deceptive. Politics complements it with its own special additive. The spin and hollowness of the packaged response have become its hallmark--the measure of the decline of democratic representation and of any genuine appeal of what a polity has to offer.