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What Words Or Phrases Would You Ban From Newscasts?

J

Joey1986

I liked that "Who Would You Ban From TV?" thread, so as long as we're on that subject, why not a thread about news clichés? Here are some that I can think of:

1. Hospitalized (People don't become hospitalized, they're simply in the hospital).
2. Allegedly (If you're reporting the news, that's not always enough to protect you from being sued for libel. It's better to say who's doing the alleging.)
3. Under the knife (Ever seen a surgery story without this one? Not all surgeries require knives anymore.)
4. Wet stuff and white stuff (Can hardly remember a weather report about rain or snow without those tired phrases.)
5. Famed (What's wrong with saying "famous"?)
6. Death toll (I have never watched a story about a disaster, be it natural [such as a hurricane] or artificial [such as a terrorist attack], without this one. What's wrong with saying "number of deaths"?)
7. Gunned down (I think that "shot" would suffice in stories of this nature.)
8. Team coverage (If more than one reporter is working on the same story at the same time, why not just say something like, "We have two reports, beginning with [insert reporter's name here] in [insert place name here]?")
9. Under fire (Why use this silliness to describe a celebrity or political figure in trouble with the law?)
 
1. The terms "male" and "female" when referring to men and women. Male and female are adjectives, not nouns. What's wrong with saying "the victim was an 18-year-old woman" or "the suspect is a 30-year-old man?"

2. The unnecessary and time-consuming flashy graphics describing the topic of the next story, such as "War Room" for Iraq coverage. Even worse is when the anchor says "We have a weather alert..." and then the "Weather Alert!!!!!!" graphic is splashed on-screen for 5 seconds. Gee, we couldn't figure that out from his statement? Fox O&Os are far and away the worst, but not by any means the only, offenders. Take away those annoying graphics and you could throw in another ad and make Mr. Murdoch some more money. ;D
 
Mastaclocksetta, I'm glad you liked the thread. :D

I nominate references to Wednesday as "hump day". Makes me cringe. :-[

I also want to include Larry King's "We'll be back with our remaining moments with..." :-[

Hoo-zah!
 
KentBrockman said:
This one has got to go away:

BREAKING NEWS

It has been so overused.... it means nothing anymore.
Click to expand...

That is the best example, since 9-11 everything is breaking news. I love how our 2" of snow is a SNOWSTORM!. I guess technically it is, but two inches in Chicago? That's nothing, now maybe in Miami

:)
 
In news reporting or promos,

"(station name) was there first/live/all day/etc..."
 
"...And Finally..."

It sounds as if they couldn't wait for the newswcast to get over!

"(co-anchor) is off tonight"

I can see that, just give me the damn news!
 
Most of the nominations are cliches, signs of bad writing, sloppy editing and TV newsies endlessly copying each other.

I'd ban alliteration (hack writers showing off).
And all unoriginal similes and metaphors.

Apparently a lot of news hacks never heard of KISS. There needs to be a journalistic equivalent of Occam's Razor. When in doubt use the phrase with fewer words and the word with fewer syllables.

Check the dictionary: "male" and "female" are also nouns. I agree that how they are used in a lot of news broadcasts is pretentious.
 
They can cut all the happy talk between "personalities" during newscasts. An anchor does not need to comment and say something like "what a sad story" or "such a terrible loss" or any cliche'. They do not add to the news. When a story is over,, "back to the studio", and at most the anchor should say "thank you" and move on. Honestly, I'm sick of local newscasts sounding like a bad radio morning zoo. Giggling should be banned from the newsroom.

First, I am here to see and hear the news.
Second, you are not funny or interesting,,,, JUST READ THE NEWS.

Id rather have an ugly journalist on tv than a moronic pretty face.
 
This one burns me up, and it keeps on happening:

American, as in U.S., reporters, anchors, whoever, giving distances in a US-oriented story in METRICS!!

"The new lightpole in downtown Sandusky is 60 meters high."

"The trip through Death Valley is about 100 kilometers long."

"The crack in the sidewalk in Downtown Glendale has been measured at 33 centimeters."

News Einsteins, it's really very simple: This is the United States of America. Not England, Not France, Not even our good neighbors to the north, Canada. The USA. Do you know what that means? That means....

WE'RE NOT ON THE FREAKIN' METRIC SYSTEM! GET A CLUE! Give us distances in inches, feet & miles! Please! How hard is that?

Thank you for the opportunity to vent.
 
RicoGregg said:
This one burns me up, and it keeps on happening:

American, as in U.S., reporters, anchors, whoever, giving distances in a US-oriented story in METRICS!!

"The new lightpole in downtown Sandusky is 60 meters high."

"The trip through Death Valley is about 100 kilometers long."

"The crack in the sidewalk in Downtown Glendale has been measured at 33 centimeters."

News Einsteins, it's really very simple: This is the United States of America. Not England, Not France, Not even our good neighbors to the north, Canada. The USA. Do you know what that means? That means....

WE'RE NOT ON THE FREAKIN' METRIC SYSTEM! GET A CLUE! Give us distances in inches, feet & miles! Please! How hard is that?

Thank you for the opportunity to vent.
Click to expand...

I've never seen that in Arizona, at least not on the English-language stations. I can understand if it were being done on stations near the Canadian border or Spanish-language newscasts in AZ, CA, NM, or TX, but not anywhere inland. What stations are doing it and where?
 
sack said:
They can cut all the happy talk between "personalities" during newscasts. An anchor does not need to comment and say something like "what a sad story" or "such a terrible loss" or any cliche'. They do not add to the news. When a story is over,, "back to the studio", and at most the anchor should say "thank you" and move on. Honestly, I'm sick of local newscasts sounding like a bad radio morning zoo. Giggling should be banned from the newsroom.

First, I am here to see and hear the news.
Second, you are not funny or interesting,,,, JUST READ THE NEWS.

Id rather have an ugly journalist on tv than a moronic pretty face.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you on that. That's why I get most of my news from 'net and weather from The Weather Channel's "Locals on the 8s".
 
bostonmediaguy said:
"At this hour."

Do you mean now?
Click to expand...

This is an unfortunate phrase ABC Radio stuck us with in the late 50s when they were doing "news live at 55." Something would be scheduled to happen on the hour (when NBC and CBS) had their news, so ABC would talk about it happening "at this hour" to make it sound like now.

They also became fond of "as you heard first on ABC" after they had something on the air five minutes ahead of CBS and NBC radio. Jeez, if you listen to ABC (Top 40 in most markets) rather than NBC or CBS (usually the station your parents listened to back then), you heard everything first on ABC.

I'm also sick of "cold air from Canada" or "cold Canadian air." Canada is not an ice box. It's pretty much the same weather as adjacent regions of the US. The correct term is "arctic air."

I have never heard US stations or networks giving distances in metric units. 2-liter bottles maybe, but never distances. Whom have you seen doing that?
 
"The legendary _____________". People in broadcasting often use this to refer to deceased or retired broadcasters as in "the legendary Gordon McLendon." May also be used for others in the performing arts.
Sorry, Robin Hood is legendary. Real people are not legendary.
 
"Coming up in our full forecast in about ten minutes"

If there was some important weather, you'd be telling us about it in your 20 second summary.

"Action 5 News at six... with Debbie Wilcox. Aaron Lewis. Meteorologist Barry Sanders. And sports with Rick Helmsley." Note the redundancy of the second with. Could be rewritten as "Action 5 News at six.... Starring Debbie Wilcox and Aaron Lewis ... starts now" :p

Maybe CBS could make some gains by switching Cronkite out for Rich Fields. "From Studio 46 at CBS in New York City. The fabulous thirty minute CBS Evening News. Bob Schieffer ... Come on Down. Anthony Mason ... Come on Down. And now, here is the star of the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric (enters set to thunderous applause). :p :p

"We'll see you at 11." No, I'll be asleep.

"News 5 Investigates." No, you're short on news, so you're filling time. If you were really on the stick, the things you investigate would never have happened.

"I'm Julie Peterson, along with videographer Logan Gwaltney, News 5."

"News 5 videographer Stan Matthews was at the zoo today, watching the polar bears bathe"

"Storm Team 5" Dangerous weather (i.e. storms) might affect your area once or twice a year, on average. If you need to refer to your team of meteorologists, do it. Just don't brand them.

In ____ Works tonight (HealthWorks, SportsWorks, MoneyWorks ... )

Most of my things have to do with imaging, not the actual content, I guess.
 
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