Carlos Lozada, editor of the Washington Post ‘s Outlook section, provides a fantastic list of some of the hackneyed words and phrases his stylebook forbids. It’s striking to see how many of these bits of jargon are recycled in nearly every piece of reporting on offer. When was the last time you read about a “charm offensive” or political “pushback” in a crisis with “shifting dynamics?”
A few favorites:
Needless to sayMidwife (as a verb that does not involve childbirth)
A rare window (unless we’re talking about a real window that is in fact rare)
Rorschach test (unless it is a real one)
Palpable sense of relief
Gestalt/Zeitgeist
Remains to be seen
Double down
Rose from obscurity (in journalism, all rises are from obscurity)
Dizzying array (in journalism, all arrays make one dizzy)
Withering criticism (in journalism, all criticism is withering)
Predawn raid (in journalism, all raids are predawn)
Dons the mantle of
Growing body of evidence
Tapped (as substitute for “selected” or “appointed”)
Ignominious end
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