As the main sign of manipulation, researchers call the hidden nature of the impact, the very fact that should not be noticed by the object of manipulation. That is why, from the numerous linguistic means of manipulative influence, our attention was drawn to euphemisms - words or expressions that can veil facts and events that have a deliberately unfavorable system of assessments for the public consciousness and can cause antipathy. The linguistic nature of euphemisms is such that they distract the recipient's attention from the forbidden concept, as they are associated "in the minds of the participants in the speech act with denotatives outside the tabooed circle." The specificity of the use of euphemisms as a means of expressing a negative assessment in the texts of modern Russian print media is considered.