Despite the terms first appearance in George Orwell's 1984 more over 60 years ago, the use of "doublespeak" is on the rise in the US.  

Whether it's euphemism, jargon, gobbledygook or inflated language, doublespeak is being used regularly by politicians, government agencies and businesses to distance you from the truth.    

William Lutz on CSPAN

In this episode, American linguist William Lutz, co-author of the SEC's Plain English Handbook, author of Doublespeak and 16 other books on writing in clear language and professor emeritus at Rutgers University explains why doublespeak is counterproductive to democracy, why we need to stop being passive consumers of deceptive language and what we can do to fight back.

01:28 -- "Clear language is essential so that both parties understand what they are agreeing to. In any contract that you enter into, you have to understand what your obligations and rights are under the terms of that contract," says Mr. Lutz.  

If a company writes a contract in such a way that consumers think they understand what their obligations are, but in reality don't, they may agree to something they don't understood, and ultimately cannot fulfill.  

When companies use anything other than straight-forward clear language to describe the terms of an offer, they're not dealing honestly in the marketplace. They are setting up consumers to fail.

02:47 -- After a career focused on the use of doublespeak -- a term coined by George Orwell in his book 1984, first published in 1949 -- Lutz says this practice is on the rise for the very same reason Orwell predicted in his book, which is that "You can get away with a lot of things in language.  

We talk about spin, and it's all right to be a spin doctor. But what are we really saying about a spin doctor?  A spin doctor sits there and says, "Oh no, no, no, you didn't hear what you thought you heard.

Let me tell you what you really heard, and proceeds to put a spin on. And the spin turns out to be something entirely different than what was said or what was written or whatever.  

This has now become a profession. If you can get away with things using just words, why not?  And it's become, unfortunately, something of a growth industry," says Mr. Lutz.

04:12 -- Doublespeak poses a threat to the United States because it creates a buffer between what organizations are saying and what people are hearing.  If you're entering into a credit card contract, or buying a home, and you're understanding of your obligation is not based on reality, that's problematic.

The housing bubble was exacerbated by the fact that people thought they understood the mortgages they were getting, only to find out that they were in over their heads.  

In a democracy, we decide what policies and candidates to back by listening to the public discourse.  If the discussion is carried out in doublespeak, organizations deliberately mislead the people so they don't really know what's going on, and we wind up making decisions of social importance on the wrong basis.

05:41 -- "Doublespeak is a matter of intent. You can identify doublespeak by looking at who is saying what to whom, under what conditions and circumstances, with what intent and what result.

If a politician stands up and speaks to you and says, "I am giving you exactly what I believe, and then turns around and does the opposite, then you've got a pretty good yardstick. She was pretending to tell me something, and it turns out it wasn't what she meant at all,