Talk:Sanewashing

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 15:44, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

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• ... that journalists can avoid sanewashing with the truth sandwich technique?

• Source: Tornoe, Rob (2024-10-01). "The 'sanewashing' phenomenon". Editor and Publisher. Retrieved 2024-10-05. So, how do you avoid sanewashing Trump or any other politician? The first thing you can do is employ a 'truth sandwich' in your coverage. Developed by author and linguist George Lakoff and promoted by New York University professor and author Jay Rosen, it basically means to surround a lie or misstatement with the truth.

• ALT1: ... that Rob Tornoe wrote in Editor & Publisher that journalists can avoid sanewashing with the truth sandwich technique? Source: Tornoe, Rob (2024-10-01). "The 'sanewashing' phenomenon". Editor and Publisher. Retrieved 2024-10-05. So, how do you avoid sanewashing Trump or any other politician? The first thing you can do is employ a 'truth sandwich' in your coverage. Developed by author and linguist George Lakoff and promoted by New York University professor and author Jay Rosen, it basically means to surround a lie or misstatement with the truth.
• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Chili Williams

5x expanded by Soibangla (talk), Jonathan Deamer (talk), and Superb Owl (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 6 past nominations.

Jonathan Deamer (talk) 08:22, 12 October 2024 (UTC).

• 2 bits of jargon readers are unlikely to know is too many for a hook. I would try another one that focuses on sane washing specifically without introducing other terms. (t · c) buidhe 23:57, 20 October 2024 (UTC)
  • ALT2: ... that Will Bunch, columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, believes sanewashing "has all but clinched Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2024"? The Philadelphia Inquirer: "I think sanewashing has all but clinched Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2024 — not just for its cleverness, but because finding the right language may be having a positive impact on our politics and our future."
  • ALT3: ... that according to Urban Dictionary, the word sanewashing was coined in a Reddit forum for neoliberals in 2020? Columbia Journalism Review: "The term itself actually isn’t new, and it wasn’t born in media-criticism circles, per se; according to Urban Dictionary, it was coined in 2020 on a Reddit page for neoliberals (which Linda Kinstler wrote about recently for CJR), and meant “attempting to downplay a person or idea’s radicality to make it more palatable to the general public."

@buidhe Thanks for the feedback! Fair point. I've added two alternatives above. I'm trying to keep it about language/journalism rather than go into an (even more) political territory for DYK purposes. Jonathan Deamer (talk) 17:26, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

ALT2 doesn't seem like a hook unless it happens, the etymology mentioned in ALT3 is not particularly noteworthy for 21st century neologisms. I feel like you should have some good material in the article, maybe a hook focusing on a particular alleged instance or in relation to the main political figure to which it's applied (i.e. trump) would be better. (t · c) buidhe 14:10, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

@buidhe I hear you on "focusing on a particular alleged instance or in relation to the main political figure to which it's applied". Here are a couple of different spins on a similar idea:

• • • ALT4: ... that both Tim Walz and JD Vance were accused of sanewashing in the 2024 vice presidential debate? MSNBC: On Tuesday, Vance took that same "sanewashing" approach to the debate stage in New York. When pressed by the moderators about Trump calling climate change a "hoax," for example, Vance deflected. Instead of answering yes or no, Vance tried to "interpret" for Trump. The Hill: The term 'sanewashing' is going around among liberal media critics, the idea that the media is too willing to normalize [former President] Trump and Vance's behavior," Silver said in a Substack post Wednesday. "Wasn't Walz sanewashing Vance? He said nothing about the Republican ticket's conspiratorial claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets, for instance.
    • ALT5: ... that Nate Silver suggested Tim Walz was sanewashing by not mentioning Donald Trump's "conspiratorial claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets" in the 2024 vice presidential debate? The Hill: The term 'sanewashing' is going around among liberal media critics, the idea that the media is too willing to normalize [former President] Trump and Vance's behavior," Silver said in a Substack post Wednesday. "Wasn't Walz sanewashing Vance? He said nothing about the Republican ticket's conspiratorial claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets, for instance.

Not a full review. I'm not sure about notability. WP:NEO specifies that use of a term does not count towards the notability of the term, only mentions of it do. It's why we don't have a page for, say, kiwi (word) but do for antidisestablishmentarianism (word). Mediaite, for instance, only indirectly mentions the term in passing by embedding a Tweet. The October New York Times source does not mention the term at all.

All non-primary sources (all sources not directly coining the term) come from 2024, and the term might just be a passing fad that disappears with the conclusion of the election. It might even be folded into Rhetoric of Donald Trump, as it just seems to be a spinoff. Bremps... 21:32, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Thanks Bremps. This was discussed Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sanewashing with a result of keep. Jonathan Deamer (talk) 08:23, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

Reviewer needed. Z1720 (talk) 15:37, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Article is new enough, long enough, well sourced and neutral. It is plagiarism free: although Earwig says its 80% likely there's plagiarism, these are all extensive quotations, either in text, or in references. Hooks are cited; I think ALT4 works best as its simplest. QPQ is done. AfD is closed with keep. Lajmmoore (talk) 17:36, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

Origin of the term

The current source for this term originating on reddit is a CJR article which only cites Urban Dictionary which is not an authoritative source for anything except establishing timelines.

I found at least one page dating the term back to a blog post in 2007. The wordorigins.org website seems like an acceptable source to me since it cites its sources which are themselves examples of useage. I'm going to rewrite the History section based on this source.— Preceding unsigned comment added by ClaireNeveu (talk • contribs) 18:18, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

I can't provide a better source here since this is all firsthand knowledge and I haven't actually documented it anywhere, but for those interested:

To my understanding, InverseFlorida's use of the term on r/neoliberal had no connection to any earlier uses, but every use after that point was downstream of her. So, for example, I wrote the article "/r/antiwork: A Tragedy of Sanewashing and Social Gentrification" (since moved to this mirror) in early 2022, directly inspired by her use of the term, and the term had been bouncing around related circles until it broke out into more mainstream media a couple of months ago. TracingWoodgrains (talk) 20:26, 14 November 2024 (UTC)