Thought Leaders?

Antonia Zerbisias has a post about Toronto Life's recent article about Heather Reisman - and this phrase jumped out at me:

Reisman phoned the editor of this magazine, accusing me of posing nasty questions. “I think I’m a good person,” she said, adding that she could call on “500 thought leaders” across the nation to attest to that perception. Three hours later, a two-page missive was hand-�delivered to Toronto Life on the personal letterhead of Gerald Wilfred Schwartz. In more than three decades as a journalist, I have never received such a heavy-handed warning, let alone one from a couple whose net worth is estimated at $758 million. “You and the writer are hereby put on notice,” it said, “that all records, notes and source documentation used in the course of preparing the proposed article must be maintained for litigation should this become necessary.”

"Thought leaders?" That's pretty creepy sounding. Is this rich-speak for "people like me"? Without getting in to too much detail (Reisman and Schwartz do seem lawsuit-happy, after all) I can personally attest that Reisman seems to have a thing for Orwellian phrases. Is there something fundamentally unhealthy about being rich - does it permanently destroy your capacity to perceive how crazy you sound?