Gossips of the world, take cover! A new national campaign—”WordsCanHeal”—is targeting gossip and other “verbal violence” with a multimedia PR blitz aimed to stomp that ol’ grapevine out of existence. The campaign will launch on Sept. 10 with print ads, posters on Metro trains and buses, TV spots, and a national “WordsCanHeal Day” to elicit a “new tone” in Washington, featuring a bipartisan cast of U.S. senators, including Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). In a press release, Irwin Katsof, co-executive director of the campaign, touted the results of an exclusive survey commissioned by WordsCanHeal showing that 69 percent of those polled believe that gossip is a problem at school, and 79 percent see it as a workplace bugaboo. “This poll shows that gossip hurts millions of Americans every week,” argues Katsof. So shut up, already!— Richard Byrne