Is Photoshop a bad word?

I think photoshopping are "banned" of those who don't know what it is.
I use it all the time, but no one thinks I do. In fact most of the time I use Lightrooom, not Photoshop Elements.
I use it to get the pictures to look like it really was.

I used to feel the same way when I first started getting into photography. I took photos either in Auto mode or P mode with centre-weighted metering and I was wondering why I was spending 5-10 minutes post processing each photo to get it displaying what I saw as I saw it.  At the time I didn't realise that the camera has no idea about what it is being aimed at. It just measures the light coming in but doesn't know what the scene is at all. A camera left to make its own decisions can easily be fooled, especially in tricky, non uniform light conditions.

So I did some research and study into taking better photos SOOC.  I researched the exposure triangle and how aperture, ISO and shutter speed relate to each other and their affects on exposure.  I also researched how the camera meter works.  I soon learned that a camera will try to convert all incoming light to 18% grey. Armed with new knowledge I then abandoned shooting in Auto, P or any of the other modes.  I now shoot in manual mode 99% of the time, giving me total control over the settings and not letting the camera make decisions for me.  The only time I now use shutter or aperture priority modes is when I am in a situation where I don't have time to set up everything properly, like a family event for example, and I have to point and shoot to minimise missing any important photo opportunity.

For metering, I now look for an 18% grey or equivalent midtone in the scene and spot meter it to get my exposure settings.  By correctly metering a scene and setting my own aperture, ISO and shutter speed in manual mode, I find that the vast majority of my photos are very close to reality SOOC and now I spend 1-2 minutes (absolute max) per photo tweaking it in Adobe Camera Raw and PSE.

Hm, well, already that is a VERY subjective assessment, as reality exhibits contrast ranges that greatly exceed the ability of camera sensors to capture.  The human eye can discriminate contrast ranges up to 1:10,000 all at once, but camera sensors can only capture dynamic ranges on the order of 1:400, so what is SOOC is nearly always a pale representation of reality for many typical scenes no matter what.

An in-depth discussion of this can be found in the first chapter of "The HDRI Handbook" by Christian Block; it is well worth the effort.  I found a PDF of the first edition online; the 2nd edition is available from Amazon for $28 as I recall.

I tend to like images with a bit of saturated colour and high dynamic range that I have seen in magazines and photography websites (including PSE&M) and always wondered how I could achieve similar results given that my camera (Panasonic Lumix) doesn't come close to producing images like the ones I have admired. When I discovered PSE13 and Photomatix Pro I was blown away by how much these tools extended the range of what I could do. Once upon a time, so called serious photographers dismissed others who dared to shoot in colour, so go figure!

I think the question is Photoshop a bad word is akin to is money bad ... IMO it's what is done with either of the two that's makes them bad or good. Many times what I think is "right" when capturing an image turns out not so right when viewing on my screen; or I missed the ugly piece of trash in the lower corner. I'm perfectly at ease using editing software to make my captured images more pleasing.
I do think that photojournalists and media editors abuse the use of editing software to slant images in a particular way.

yep, no problem , since I started to use the metering method I described earlier (spot metering an 18% grey or equivalent) the exposure and colors in just about all my photos immediately were spot on or very close to spot on SOOC resulting in much less post processing time (1-2 mins/photo max. now).  Admittedly, the few occasions where I haven't needed any post processing of my RAW file almost always includes the use of a tripod and shooting at the lens' "sweet spot".

I find that using any of the other metering modes (center-weighted, evaluative etc) increases the chances of the exposure being more off than if using spot metering because they give more weight to the camera in making the exposure setting and camera meters can be fooled by tricky non-uniform lighting conditions.