Lab+9+-+Discussion+on+Truthiness+by+Ben+Zimmer

Article: @http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/magazine/17FOB-onlanguage-t.html?_r=1

I found Stephen Colberts remark about addressing the truth in dictionaries and reference books very interesting and somewhat true. Stephen Colbert in the ‘The Colbert Report,’ 2005 " says “And that brings us to tonight's word: truthiness. Now I'm sure some of the Word Police, the wordanistas over at Webster's, are gonna say, 'Hey, that's not a word.' Well, anybody who knows me knows that I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, or what did or didn't happen. Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I wanna say it happened in 1941, that's my right. I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart." This quote only makes sense in terms of who validates information for society, what gives them the power to say what is true and what isn’t? What qualifications does this person have? When I heard this quote I found myself questioning many things. At the same time I don’t entirely agree with his statement. If we didn’t have dictionaries and reference books where would we gather information from, what would we turn to in order to have the right spelling of words and meanings? We need some type of order in society and these are two types of materials that we can refer to, to get this information.  Another point that I wanted to bring up is the hype around this word ‘truthiness’. I don’t even think it should be a word or be in the dictionary. There are many words that already exist that carry the same meaning and can be used. I find the hype created after the word ‘truthiness’ was promoted is even sillier. For example, referring to Paris Hilton as ‘faminess’. That’s not even a word! I believe that the English language already enough words as it, individuals just making up words that sound nice should just stop. 