Orwell Award
The NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language (the Orwell Award for short), "established in 1975 and given by the National Council of Teachers of English Public Language Award Committee, recognizes writers who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse."[1]
Its negative counterpart, awarded by the same body, is the Doublespeak Award, "an ironic tribute to public speakers who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered."[2]
Winners
- 2015: Anthony Cody for The Educator and the Oligarch
- 2014 The Onion for its satire and "treatment of dramatically sensitive issues that plague our culture", in particular U.S. gun culture.
- 2013: Paul L. Thomas whose publications include "Ignoring Poverty in the U.S.: The corporate takeover of public education" (2012) and "Challenging Genres: Comic books and graphic novels" (2010). Dr. Thomas has also edited a recently published volume titled "Becoming and Being a Teacher: Confronting Traditional Norms to Create New Democratic Realities" (2013).
- 2012: Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan, authors of Buried in the Sky
- 2011: F.S. Michaels, author of Monoculture: How One Story Is Changing Everything
- 2010: Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules and co-narrator of Food, Inc.
- 2009: Amy Goodman, co-founder, executive producer, and host of Democracy Now!
- 2008: Charlie Savage, author of Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy
- 2007: Ted Gup, author of Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life
- 2006: Steven H. Miles, M.D, author of Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror
- 2005: Jon Stewart and The Daily Show cast
- 2004: Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and Writer Arundhati Roy
- 2002: Bill Press for Spin This!
- 2001: Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber for Trust Us, We're Experts!: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future
- 2000: Alfie Kohn for The Schools Our Children Deserve
- 1999: Norman Solomon for The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media: Decoding Spin and Lies in the Mainstream News (published by Common Courage Press, 1999)
- 1998: Scott Adams for his role in "Mission Impertinent" (San Jose Mercury News West Magazine, November 16, 1997). The farce highlighted the absurdity of managerial language and the overuse of the "mission statement".
- 1998: Juliet Schor for The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer
- 1997: Gertrude Himmelfarb for "Professor Narcissus: In Today's Academy, Everything Is Personal," June 2, 1997, issue of The Weekly Standard
- 1996: William D. Lutz for The New Doublespeak: Why No One Knows What Anyone's Saying Anymore
- 1995: Lies of Our Times (LOOT) A Magazine to Correct the Record, was published between January 1990 and December 1994. It served not only as a general media critic, but as a watchdog of The New York Times, which the magazine referred to as "the most cited news medium in the U.S., our paper of record."
- 1994: Garry Trudeau, creator of the cartoon strip "Doonesbury" was cited for consistently attacking doublespeak in all aspects of American life and from all parts of the cultural and political spectrum.
- 1993: Eric Alterman: Sound and Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics
- 1992: Donald Barlett and James Steele, Philadelphia Inquirer for America: What Went Wrong?
- 1991: David Aaron Kessler, Commissioner, Federal Food and Drug Administration. "Under the leadership of Commissioner Kessler," said William Lutz, chair of the NCTE Committee on Public Doublespeak, "the FDA has begun seizing products with misleading labels, developing new guidelines for clarity and accuracy in food labels, and exposing false, misleading, and deceptive health claims on food labels and in food advertising."
- 1990: Charlotte Baecher, Consumers Union for Selling America's Kids: Commercial Pressures on Kids of the 90s
- 1989: Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky for Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
- 1988: Donald Barlett and James B. Steele, Philadelphia Inquirer for a series of articles on the Tax Reform Act of 1986, in which they pointed out language disguising tax loopholes in the legislation
- 1987: Noam Chomsky for On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures
- 1986: Neil Postman for Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
- 1985: Torben Vestergaard and Kim Schroder for The Language of Advertising
- 1984: Ted Koppel, moderator, Nightline, ABC-TV. ". . . a model of intelligence, informed interest, social awareness, verbal fluency, fair and rigorous questioning of controversial figures. . . . [who has sought] honesty and openness, clarity and coherence, to raise the level of public discourse."--William Lutz, chair, NCTE Committee on Public Doublespeak
- 1983: Haig Bosmajian for The Language of Oppression
- 1982: Stephen Hilgartner, Richard C. Bell, and Rory O'Connor for Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Visions and Mindset
- 1981: Dwight Bolinger for Language--The Loaded Weapon
- 1980: Sheila Harty for Hucksters in the Classroom: A Review of Industry Propaganda in Schools
- 1979: Erving Goffman for Gender Advertisements
- 1978: Sissela Bok for Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life
- 1977: Walter Pincus, Washington Post "A patient, methodical journalist who knew his job and who knew the jargon of Washington. Mr. Pincus was the man responsible for bringing to public attention, and thus to a debate in the Senate, the appropriations funding for the neutron bomb."--Hugh Rank, chair, NCTE Committee on Public Doublespeak
- 1976: Hugh Rank for the "Intensify/Downplay" schema for analyzing communication, persuasion, and propaganda
- 1975: David Wise for The Politics of Lying
Notes
- Noam Chomsky, Donald Barlett, and James B. Steele are the only recipients to have won twice.
See also
- Awards:
- Ironic or negative awards: