Unword of the year 10 "Alternative facts" are only half the story

"Alternative facts" are only half the story

It was as anticipated as it was unconvincing: The Unwort des Jahres 2017 is "alternative facts". According to the jury headed by linguistics professor Nina Janich, the term "is the disguising and misleading expression for the attempt to make misrepresentations acceptable as a legitimate means of public debate".

The term coined Donald Trump's adviser Kellyanne Conway, who called "alternative facts" the wrong statement of fact, to the inauguration of the US president in early 2017 have been as many revelers as never before on the National Mall in front of the Capitol in Washington. "Since then, expression has become a synonym and symbol of one of the most worrying tendencies in public usage, especially in social media," explained Janich.

He argues that "it is a growing practice to replace the exchange of factual arguments with unassignable claims". But alternative or false facts are only half the story. One thing is certain: They are there, the false reports or corrected facts on supposedly conservative or right blogs and social media accounts.

But it is also clear: Fake news from links and also from the so-called quality media are published regularly. That's where it's called Political Correctness. Also by omitting and not reporting one can misinform the public.

Best times for serious reporting

However, the chances for reputable reporters have never been so good as they are now to convince them. Not despite, but just because there is a lot of competition on the Internet and there especially in social networks that - consciously or not - unclean or even reported wrong. If you are constantly attracted to fact-based reporting instead of nanny journalism, the reader will end up believing more, and sometimes he likes to pay for it.

Rather than worrying about "alternative facts," which later prove to be true, the still-dominant left-wing intellectual milieu should ask why there seems to be so much demand for "alternative facts" that a self-proclaimed, linguistic-critical jury should use the term to vote for the wrong word of the year.

The result could unsettle her. After all, just as "facts" sometimes turn facts into reality or even invent them freely, it is sometimes simply facts that contradict one's own world view.