Do words mean anything anymore?

Not to get all Derrida in my baseball blog, but I keep reading and hearing the adjective "shocked" and the adverb "shockingly" used to describe Torre's decision to reject the Yankees' offer.

1. Steinbrenner said Torre wasn't going to come back (probably) if the Yankees lost in the playoffs.
2. Torre's contract had run out.
3. This is at least the third postseason in a row where Torre's job status was shaky.
4. I could find twenty articles that predicted the Yankees would make Torre a lowball offer and then Torre would forced to reject it.
5. If you couldn't figure out 4. yourself, then you're not paying attention.

While I think the entire faux offer was a waste of time and a waste of an airplane ticket, I also think the Yankees would have been crucified if they'd announced their search for a new manager ten minutes after Game Four.

I am seriously wondering if the word "shocking" has any meaning anymore.

"Awesome" used to mean, like, the size of the ocean or the force created by a supernova. Today, Taco Bell burritos are regularly described as "awesome."

Are these people really shocked? Or do these people just have a limited vocabulary? Or has the word just lost all meaning?

I mean, the Torre retrospectives seemed pre-written and ready to go.

Couldn't have been too much of a shock: "Shockingly, Joe Torre rejected the Yankee contract offer. Even more shockingly, I had already written this before it even happened."