December 4, 2008 10:33 AM

Let Them Die a Painful Death

I am deep into my next book proposal(s) and am therefore struggling mightily with the English language. Writing is a death match between the writer and the word - and the trick is to not let your own laziness get the better of you, because you'll find yourself bludgeoned by a humiliating cliche.

Which, of course, is what most of journalism does - get lazy. And I don't mean even the reporting, but the sheer use of the language. Read the typical article in Time magazine or the Politico and you will see references to the laziest words and phrases possible - "tough-minded," "hard-nosed," "pragmatic," "ideological," "finger-pointing," "centrist," "maverick," "reformer," "serious," "sober," "polarizing"...the list is infinite. These are words that describe absolutely nothing - indeed, tell us that the writer is either desperately attempting to fill space, too lazy to actually report on substance, aiming to worship their subject - or all three (and I pray that this masterpiece of warmed-over conventional wisdom from Dick Polman - normally a good writer - serve as a cautionary tale of cliche in every journalism school in America).

I'm not trying to get all Bill Safire here, and I'm not beyond reproach, of course. The pace of blogging can sometimes require a less serious relationship with the language, and shorthand can be essential. But in terms of pieces in publications that have entire editorial staffs and day- or week-long deadlines, there's just no excuse for it. It dumbs down our entire political debate, to the point where every politician or political operative is either the heroic Tough-Minded Hard-Nosed Serious Sober Pragmatist or the Ideological Maverick Reformer, and every activist is a Partisan Polarizing Finger-Pointer.

Really, how can we ever hope to make complex, nuanced decisions when those whose only job is to report on the world insist on speaking in cliche? And really, do journalists or editors wonder why the public thinks journalism is such a joke, when so much of journalism has become such steaming pile of hackneyed horseshit?

So from my Twitter feed to this blog, let me proclaim: Dear god please let cliches like "pragmatic" and "tough-minded" and "hard-nosed" die a painful death - and make writers who use them suffer (including me if/when I do). They are ruining journalism for the rest of us.

Feel free to use the comments section to list your own Greatest Hits of meaningless words you see all too often throughout the media.

</rant>