Discovered a new word today - a glorious American one - truthiness. Coined by comedian Steve Colbert it means just saying what you believe to be true - never mind the facts.
This is fron The Colbert report 2005: "And that brings us to tonight's word: truthiness. "Now I'm sure some of the Word Police, the wordanistas over at Webster's, are gonna say, 'Hey, that's not a word.' Well, anybody who knows me knows that I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, or what did or didn't happen. Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I wanna say it happened in 1941, that's my right. I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart."
It's hysterically funny, deeply depressing and extremely familiar. Creeping truthiness is taking over from fact-based reporting in the media, blogs, books and especially in conversation. Look out for it and fight it!
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