Chicago is buzzing over a memo that Tribune CEO Randy Michaels put out listing words he didn’t want to hear on WGN-AM (720), the news/talk radio station owned by the World’s Greatest Newspaper (which is what WGN stands for).
Blogger Robert Feder has given him grief about it. Noting that it’s all well and good to coach staffers about avoiding jargon and cliche, Mr. Feder said that Mr. Michaels went beyond that reasonable goal:
Meyerson takes it a step further, directing his staff to keep tabs on each other’s compliance: They’re to report any on-air infractions by their co-workers, making sure to note the precise time and date on “bingo cards” he provided that contain a random assortment of Michaels’ forbidden words. If you ask me, that’s just plain creepy.What’s even more disturbing is that the CEO of a major institution would engage in such petty and insulting micromanaging of subordinates….
Most unwisely, Mr. Michaels then contributed to the image of him as an out-of-control martinet by holding a meeting with the station’s staff to chew them out over his memo having been leaked.
Somewhat more helpfully, Mr. Michaels then put out this explanation:
“ ‘The List’ was part of a collection of notes distributed by me to the attendees of the recent Broadcast News Directors meetings. There is neither corporate ‘banned’ list nor are there ‘forbidden’ words. The list was a collection of ‘News English’ words and phrases we’d be better off without. I was simply reminding News Directors that jargon, clichés, and misused words are not found in good writing. I was hoping that News Directors would add to the list of crutches. Thanks to all of the publicity, many great contributions have been received, but from outside the company. The ‘kerfuffle’ is a bit bewildering. Most news organizations have a style book, and the suggestions on that list are pretty basic. It is surprising that some believe that the CEO of a content company should not be concerned about content. As for where the list came from, it clearly came from WGN radio since it had Charlie [Meyerson]’s perhaps unfortunate introduction. It was compiled by a few people after the News Directors meeting. The same list went to all of the TV news directors without public reaction. Someone who works at WGN must think sending internal memos to an out of work blogger who doesn’t like us is OK. That part is the most disappointing.”
At the risk of sounding like a guy who hasn’t gotten over being management, even after being laid off, I want to take this opportunity to stick up for Mr. Michaels, just a bit: He actually was onto something in trying to weed out “at risk,” “two to one margin,” “Eye Rack” and a few others from news copy:
- “Flee” meaning “run away”
- “Good” or “bad” news
- “Laud” meaning “praise”
- “Seek” meaning “look for”
- “Some” meaning “about”
- “Two to one margin” . . . “Two to one” is a ratio, not a margin. A margin is measured in points. It’s not a ratio.
- “Yesterday” in a lead sentence
- “Youth” meaning “child”
- 5 a.m. in the morning
- After the break
- After these commercial messages
- Aftermath
- All of you
- Allegations
- Alleged
- Area residents
- As expected
- At risk
- At this point in time
- Authorities
- Auto accident
- Bare naked
- Behind bars
- Behind closed doors
- Behind the podium (you mean lecturn) [sic]
- Best kept secret
- Campaign trail
- Clash with police
- Close proximity
- Complete surprise
- Completely destroyed, completely abolished, completely finished or any other completely redundant use
- Death toll
- Definitely possible
- Diva
- Down in (location)
- Down there
- Dubbaya when you mean double you
- Everybody (when referring to the audience)
- Eye Rack or Eye Ran
- False pretenses
- Famed
- Fatal death
- Fled on foot
- Folks
- Giving 110%
- Going forward
- Gunman, especially lone gunman
- Guys
- Hunnert when you mean hundred
- Icon
- In a surprise move
- In harm’s way
- In other news
- In the wake of (unless it’s a boating story)
- Incarcerated
- Informed sources say . . .
- Killing spree
- Legendary
- Lend a helping hand
- Literally
- Lucky to be alive
- Manhunt
- Marred
- Medical hospital
- Mother of all (anything)
- Motorist
- Mute point. (It’s moot point, but don’t say that either)
- Near miss
- No brainer
- Officials
- Our top story tonight
- Out in (location)
- Out there
- Over in
- Pedestrian
- Perfect storm
- Perished
- Perpetrator
- Plagued
- Really
- Reeling
- Reportedly
- Seek
- Senseless murder
- Shots rang out
- Shower activity
- Sketchy details
- Some (meaning about)
- Some of you
- Sources say . . .
- Speaking out
- Stay tuned
- The fact of the matter
- Those of you
- Thus
- Time for a break
- To be fair
- Torrential rain
- Touch base
- Under fire
- Under siege
- Underwent surgery
- Undisclosed
- Undocumented alien
- Unrest
- Untimely death
- Up in (location)
- Up there
- Utilize (you mean use)
- Vehicle
- We’ll be right back
- Welcome back
- Welcome back everybody
- We’ll be back
- Went terribly wrong
- We’re back
- White stuff
- World class
- You folks
He managed to hit on some of the less forgivable words in the hack writer’s arsenal. So I give him props for that.
But when you read the whole thing, it gets more than a little weird. If he’d cut it down to maybe a dozen words, it would have seemed a bit less anal and dictatorial. Along about word 80, I start thinking of the power-mad new presidente in “Bananas”:
From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now… 16 years old!
And his overreaction to the leakage is even stranger. I’m glad I don’t work for this guy.
But I do enjoy a good debate over words. And ultimately, being out of the trade, I find it both reassuring and amusing that somewhere, these kinds of “kerfuffles” are still going on…
Many are badly overused, but some are appropriate in certain situations and didn’t he mean “‘dubbaya’ when you mean ‘W'”?
“lectern” not “lecturn”
My brother taught me that one is sentenced to die, not sentenced to death–bored to death is fine; and that saying someone is famous means you are either wrong or being redundant–use “noted.”
My dad hates “hot temperatures” and “cold temperatures”–temperatures are numbers. High temperatures indicate hot air. Also, “green in color”–as opposed to “green in shape”? –synesthesia aside, of course.
But some of the others need some context before I understand what’s wrong with them….
Cliches I hate: “’tis the season…”–the laziest way to write a Christmas feature article…
“packing a whopping x calories” and its evil sibling “packing on pounds”, which must then be “shed”–indeed, the entire language of diet and weight could use freshening.
Oh, Eye Rack is Iraq!
I thought “eye” was a verb, and “rack” a noun, and had something to do with leering at ladies.
“Rebels are we,
born to be free,
just like the fish in the sea!”
Oh, come on! The news biz faces enough challenges, and you’ve got to compound ’em by issuing a list of vocabulary proscriptions? Next you’ll be trying to mandate some principle like, “Clarity of language must reflect clarity of thought.”
@ Burl–I thought the same thing! Then I googled it–what did squares like me do before Google?
WTF, LMAO, ROTFL, FWIW….
George Carlin would be proud!