Cliché watch: Words matter
The National Conference of Editorial Writers — a group of savants whose erudition is matched only by their comeliness — recently engaged in a bout of self-examination. The topic: words and phrases that have outlived their usefulness or that weren’t all that useful in the first place.
Believing, as we do, that clichés should be avoided like the plague and obfuscation always should be eschewed, we hereby present the results of the NCEW’s survey, along with selected commentary by various NCEW savants:
• Issues and challenges. “No one has problems any more,” said one editor. “We have ‘issues.’ Likewise, we have ‘challenges.’. . . Why isn’t that a ‘problem’?”
• Faith-based. “Almost 100 percent of the time this phrase is used, the user means ‘religious,’ and they should just suck it up and use the real term.”
• Going forward. “Not with this phrase, you are not.”
• Perfect storm. “A wretched phrase now attached to every storm under the clear blue sky. . . . Not every storm is perfect. Even in Lake Wobegon.”
• At the end of the day. “At the end of the day, all I’m looking for is a good martini.”
• Proactive. “Needs to be retroactively banished from the language.”
• Input, prioritize, buzz, buzz words, time will tell. “All banned in Detroit,” said Ron Dzwonkowski, who runs the editorial page at the Detroit Free Press. “At least that’s the plan as I understand it. Bottom line.”
• Declined comment. “We’re not inviting people to tea parties here. We’re asking questions. . . . They didn’t ‘decline comment.’ They ‘would not comment.’”
• Closure. “An appalling word that crept out from the woodwork of psychobabble where it squats, poisoning the language, above all in journalism.”
Going forward, we will proactively avoid these buzzwords, but only time will tell whether, at the end of the day, the challenges presented by the perfect storm of the news will permit us to prioritize our input on this issue. Which brings us to closure.
Was `democracy’ on the list? Also, I’m glad the sun is finally setting on `at the end of the day.’ I’ve hated that phrase from, well, the beginning of the day.
They, OF COURSE, forgot that the word Muslim is not allowed. YOU KNOW, LIKE, instead the word terrorists or militants are used. But never identify anyone as a Muslim. I see that word dying out very soon.
“On the Ground”.
Curiously missed in this “self assessment” is probably the most idiotic phrase added to the lexicon by the media in the last decade. I realize there has been mass confusion of late when a reporter has been identified as being in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere else…..many people actually think the reporter is either in a helicopter hovering “over the ground” or maybe on a Hollywood set…trying to trick us. The best one yet….a reporter announced that he was in Iraq, in a tank “on the ground”. I’m so delighted he cleared that up. For a moment I was worried he might be in a tank….at an altitude of 4,000 feet. An utterly moron phrase brought to us by the media.
“Hit the ground running” — unless one is jumping out of sa moving vehicle or using a parachute, this phrase should be banned from all future discussions of the preparations of the President-Elect’s team that is making plans for action in several different areas.
Dig out the thesaurus every time one of you feels the need to use a “catch” word/phrase — there may actually be a real word that is more effective.
Also, please use the word “alleged” less. This used to apply only to those accused of “allegedly” committing a particular crime. However it is now used even when the fact of situation has already been stated.