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Terms like "looms" and "beefed up" that news articles always use

Started by bandit957, March 11, 2021, 09:48:04 AM

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bandit957

Notice how there's certain words and phrases that newspaper articles use a lot more than most people use. For example, "looms." You always see headlines about how something "looms."

"Budget shortfall looms."

"Bubble gum shortage looms."

Sometimes they use it even when something doesn't really loom, because everyone knows the looming event won't happen.

Another one is "beefed up." Usually it's in regard to something that didn't need to be "beefed up." For example, an article might say, "Local police today announced beefed-up enforcement of the Prohibition amendment." Nobody in real life says anything is "beefed up." And where did that phrase come from? What does it have to do with beef?

Another one is "for the foreseeable future."
Might as well face it, pooing is cool


webny99

Or when a source doesn't respond, they've "declined request for comment".

kphoger

______ worry _______.

What does "worry" really mean?  They think imminent doom is on the horizon, or they just made a comment about something that makes a good headline?
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

GCrites

I suppose "Looms" is a CYA term so that if it doesn't actually happen the non-entertainment source isn't humiliated like sports pundits often are.

Car people say beefed up. Like, "I beefed up the control arms since they are kinda floppy stock" is totally something plausible to say. But it does sound sort of stupid to say "beefed up patrols" since it just means more people, not a physical change to a tangible object.

J N Winkler

Another word often described as a news article cliché is gunman.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

formulanone

"Allegedly" is a good catch-all for covering all four cheeks.

"...Some are saying..." is another. It doesn't imply popularity, factuality, et cetera. It's just thrown out there.

kphoger

Quote from: formulanone on March 11, 2021, 01:15:22 PM
"Allegedly" is a good catch-all for covering all four cheeks.

...and is also commonly used in error instead of "reportedly".
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

Scott5114

Don't forget "slams". As in "Heath Slams City Council". And then you look at what he said and it's just a normal critical statement. I would say to rise to the level of "slams" it would have to be along the lines of insulting the city council's mothers and implying that they're not capable of passing a seventh-grade math class (them or their mothers).
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

-- US 175 --

I don't hear it as much recently, but for quite a while the media as well as exec. spokespeople/news releases were **way** too heavily dependent on "going forward".  It has been used mostly in short-to-long-term forecasts in business, but in other cases as well.  Most definitely a fingernails-on-blackboard phrase for me.

Rothman

Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

formulanone

Quote from: kphoger on March 11, 2021, 01:18:08 PM
Quote from: formulanone on March 11, 2021, 01:15:22 PM
"Allegedly" is a good catch-all for covering all four cheeks.

...and is also commonly used in error instead of "reportedly".

A news media outlet won't use something that discredits their own employees, unless it makes excellent copy.

Big John


CoreySamson

Quote from: webny99 on March 11, 2021, 09:57:03 AM
Or when a source doesn't respond, they've "declined request for comment".
I was just about to put this in the Minor Things That Bother You thread. It's annoying because you know that their response will just be stereotypical: "We're looking into your concerns and will see what we can do about it."

I dislike the clickbaity terms used by the Weather Channel when a bad storm rolls through an area. You probably know them: 'wrath', 'fury', 'rage', and others (although they missed out on an opportunity a couple weeks ago to say "Uri's Fury". They instead put "Uri's Wrath"). They just get old very quickly.
Buc-ee's and QuikTrip fanboy. Clincher of FM roads. Proponent of the TX U-turn.

My Route Log
My Clinches

Now on mobrule and Travel Mapping!

gonealookin

Buses usually don't "crash".  They "plunge".

Another one that annoys me is that the interviewee is "cautiously optimistic" about some outcome.  That one cuts across both political news and the sports page.

bandit957

Another one is when they talk about what something will "look like." They keep using that regarding the pandemic. "What will beaches look like?" "What will pooping look like?" Usually it's something that ends up looking exactly like it did before.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

kurumi

Coming up next: Tim Brown opens up about modern society's most exasperating news clichés! And he's not alone. It's a searing indictment of our broken system. If history is any guide, at the end of the day, we'll reach a tipping point, and then the rest will be history.
My first SF/horror short story collection is available: "Young Man, Open Your Winter Eye"

OCGuy81

One thing that drives me nuts is stock footage!!

How many times these past few months have I seen stock footage from Moderna's assembly lines, or footage of somebody being given a shot.

Another one I can't stand is "Health Watch"  segments, which is mostly stock footage of fat people's mid-sections.

bandit957

Quote from: OCGuy81 on March 13, 2021, 06:19:52 PM
One thing that drives me nuts is stock footage!!

How many times these past few months have I seen stock footage from Moderna's assembly lines, or footage of somebody being given a shot.

Another one I can't stand is "Health Watch"  segments, which is mostly stock footage of fat people's mid-sections.

For years, every time there's a story about smoking or cigarettes, they always show the same stock footage of close-ups of people's mouths with a cigarette dangling out of it.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

vdeane

Quote from: OCGuy81 on March 13, 2021, 06:19:52 PM
One thing that drives me nuts is stock footage!!

How many times these past few months have I seen stock footage from Moderna's assembly lines, or footage of somebody being given a shot.

Another one I can't stand is "Health Watch"  segments, which is mostly stock footage of fat people's mid-sections.
That was really annoying me last year during the vaping scare, as every single story (and there was one every single day!) featured the exact same stock footage of the exact same guy with annoying stubble vaping.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

J N Winkler

Quote from: kurumi on March 13, 2021, 11:57:38 AMComing up next: Tim Brown opens up about modern society's most exasperating news clichés! And he's not alone. It's a searing indictment of our broken system. If history is any guide, at the end of the day, we'll reach a tipping point, and then the rest will be history.

ISWYDT.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

SSOWorld

BREAKING NEWS!!!!


Something irrelevant happened two days ago.
Scott O.

Not all who wander are lost...
Ah, the open skies, wind at my back, warm sun on my... wait, where the hell am I?!
As a matter of fact, I do own the road.
Raise your what?

Wisconsin - out-multiplexing your state since 1918.

Max Rockatansky

#21
Miami Herald; Hurricane Karen looms, governor requests Florida residents beef up their preparedness kits. 

Meanwhile on Page 6...

Pasco County; Florida Man caught consuming alligator in front of 7/11.  When asked for comment Florida Man stated; "he was a beefed up gator, so I ate him."

bandit957

Some others are "revamp" and "phase out." Another is when they say an event will be "a bit different" from before, they mean "a lot worse."
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

jeffandnicole

When they use "experts say...".

Who are the experts?  And how many?

Which leads into another beefed up irritation: using the percentage of whatever view they are trying to convey.  If they say : "70% interviewed do not want the tree removed", many will think that's a lot of people.  But if they said: "30% of experts agree we will be safer if the beautiful shade tree planted by the parents of superstar first grader Cindy is not disturbed", that still seems to convey that the majority of people want the tree removed, combined with emotion that Cindy actually gives a shit about that tree.

SectorZ

Quote from: bandit957 on March 14, 2021, 10:01:01 AM
Another is when they say an event will be "a bit different" from before, they mean "a lot worse."

Just like, "the new normal".



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