Political language before and after Tucson

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In this week’s World in Words podcast: after the Tucson shootings, we hear from Dutch and German journalists about political discourse and violence in their countries. Also, Obama’s oratory in Tucson gets high marks from commentators on both left and right. Plus, an exploration of the term “blood libel.” If Sarah Palin had known exactly what it meant, would she still have used it?

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Origins of “blood libel”

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Republican Sarah Palin defended her fiery campaign rhetoric and accused critics of “blood libel” for linking her to the deadly Arizona shooting spree. Reporter Alex Gallafent researches “blood libel,” examining the origins and rhetorical power of the phrase. Download MP3

How do you say refudiate in Belgian?

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In this week’s World in Words podcast: an Israeli-British study shows bilinguals respond differently depending on the language of the questions; Sarah Palin compares her coinage of new English words to Shakespeare’s; and Clark Boyd’s adventures in linguistically confused Belgium. Download MP3

Global Political Cartoons: July 4 – July 10, 2009

Europe features large in this week’s political cartoons. We see President Obama and Russian President Medvedev try to flatter and dare each other into reducing their nuclear arsenals and this year’s G8 summit host, Italian president Silvio Berlusconi, appears to be preoccupied with his life outside of government. In other images, Sarah Palin has a plan to get to the White House and Barack Obama embraces his own plan to gradually withdraw from Iraq.

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