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The Disappearance of the "Me" Generation (Part 2)
Add "him" and "her" to "me" as pronouns disappearing from media English.
This morning, a co-host of a national network morning TV program coined a new word. Rather than use the unfashionable personal pronouns "him" or "her," she said "themself." Her place in the Oxford English Dictionary is secure!
What has happened to personal pronouns? Why are they taboo and why didn't I get a media memo on this new convention? We in the media are supposed to be opinion leaders, so you might suppose that we are all taking care to use something resembling proper English. Instead, gender-specific references are being tortured into a new 21st-century-speak. Perhaps we all achieve equality with the use of this new made-up word "themself," I don't know, it makes no sense to me.
And what is up with TV's unnecessary use of the preposition "from ", as in "In the next hour we'll hear from...."? It sounds as if the person is going to call or write a letter to the show. No, the performer is backstage and we will hear so-and-so next hour. We can hear Beethoven next hour, but we will certainly not hear from Beethoven next hour unless we engage a medium and Beethoven has something to say from the Great Beyond.
Finally, in local TV news.... Lately I repeatedly have heard a local TV newscaster refer to the state of Oregon as "Organ" and another pronounce the Colorado city of Columbine with a long-o sound. The o-sound of said flowery city and the word "column" are the same, I looked it up to be sure. Mass media newsrooms need good dictionaries and a few books on misused words (there are excellent ones that can serve as quick reference). If we expect legal immigrants to learn English, the media should at least take their role as opinion leaders seriously and make every attempt to use the right words in the proper context and with the correct pronunciation.
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