Jon Stewart (great to have him back) did a funny riff on the penchant of TV talking heads to use the cliche, "Take the gloves off," when talking about the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama smackdown.
Note to all media types: People spend time compiling lists of overused words, and many are perpetuated by our TV news friends. For instance, Lake Superior State University is doing an ongoing "banished words" blog.
Here's one example:
EMOTIONAL – “Reporters, short on vocabulary, often describe a scene as ‘emotional.’ Well sure, but which emotion? For a radio reporter to gravely announce, ‘There was an emotional send-off to Joe Blow’ tells me nothing, other than the reporter perceived that the participants acted in an emotional way. For instance: I had an emotional day today. I started out feeling tired and a bit grumpy until I had my coffee. I was distraught over a cat killing a bird on the other side of the street. I was bemused by my reaction to the way nature works. I was intrigued this evening to add a word or two to your suggestions. I was happy to see the words that others had posted. Gosh, this has been an emotional day for me.”
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