Tribune CEO Bans Cliches From Air Waves
EmailABC's Stu Schutzman reports from New York: In a surprise move, at this point in time, Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels, informed sources say, issued a directive this week to his flagship radio station, WGN-AM, banning some 119 words and phrases from the on-air lexicon. Gone are clichés such as no brainer, mother of all (anything) and killing spree; redundancies such as medical hospital, close proximity and fatal death. No more senseless murders, torrential rains, perfect storms or untimely deaths on Chicago’s 720 news/talk radio — “don’t say them on WGN,” says the Michaels memo. Robert Feder of vocalo.org broke the story (and has the complete list). “Sure, you’d think the chief executive officer of a company struggling to emerge from bankruptcy,” writes Feder, “would have better things to do than pester his underlings with crazy proclamations… but… you’d be wrong.” Crazy proclamations? The objective is to rid the news of “newspeak”, the banality too many of us in news too often engage in. So no more meetings behind closed doors, suspects behind bars, manhunts or best kept secrets. No more Eye-Rak or Eye-Ran……people paid to communicate should, at the very least know the proper pronunciation of two important countries. Feder asks why a big-time CEO “would engage in such petty and insulting micromanaging?” His readership is split. “Who the hell would work for this idiot,” asks one. “Michaels involvement aside,” writes another, “the list is excellent. It spotlights the worst clichés that radio news has offered up for years in lieu of good writing.” The fact of the matter is, going forward, maybe good writing is not such a bad idea… in other news.
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I wish every news organization would do this.
Posted by: consuelo gonzalez | March 11, 2010, 3:51 pm 3:51 pm
What wonderful news! It will be a pleasure to hear and read good English again. Our young people need this type of leadership.
Posted by: B Morrison | March 11, 2010, 4:04 pm 4:04 pm
Actually, ‘eye-rak’ is closer to the Arabic pronunciation than ‘ee-rak’.
Posted by: Jim Beam | March 11, 2010, 4:09 pm 4:09 pm
Bravo! Maybe they can also encourage the pronunciation of KYOH-TO as a two sylabol world, not KEY OH TO!
Posted by: C. Oshida | March 11, 2010, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
It’s about time someone did this. Nice work Mr. Michaels!
Posted by: Judy | March 11, 2010, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
Make that syllable, plaase!
Posted by: C. Oshida | March 11, 2010, 4:15 pm 4:15 pm
Will they no longer be allowed to say “nukular”? (as in nuclear)
Posted by: Allan birmantas | March 11, 2010, 4:27 pm 4:27 pm
How the heck can anybody memorize this list? Impossible. I would be totally paranoid of saying anything “banned” that I wouldn’t be able to talk at all. This guy is a fascist.
Posted by: Jenna | March 11, 2010, 4:35 pm 4:35 pm
…well then, that was a no brainer.
Posted by: Danny | March 11, 2010, 5:09 pm 5:09 pm
Good luck with that. People will be people, and they are not gonna be perfect in speech, on the air.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | March 11, 2010, 5:41 pm 5:41 pm
I think this is great Now maybe they can work on the grammar in Chicago – it is horrible I doubt English grammar is taught in the Chicago area schools!!
Posted by: blutruffle | March 11, 2010, 5:44 pm 5:44 pm
BRAVO! This is great that someone is finally promoting correct grammar in our media.
Posted by: Verna Akina | March 11, 2010, 6:54 pm 6:54 pm
Could someone please ban the redundant “point in time?” Couldn’t it be “at this time” OR “at this point?”
Also, please ban “as a rule of thumb!” The “rule of thumb” in England was that a man couldn’t beat his wife with a switch bigger around than his thumb. Since most people who use the expression aren’t planning on beating anyone (we hope), couldn’t we just say “as a general rule?”
Posted by: Diane Nash | March 11, 2010, 7:14 pm 7:14 pm
Bravo! If you can’t speak proper English, then keep quiet.
Posted by: gerg6z | March 11, 2010, 7:59 pm 7:59 pm
My favorite “idiot-speak” phrases:
“senseless murders”
“Drug czar”
“fatal death”
I’m relived to know that someone is as annoyed about clichés as much as I am.
Posted by: Marta | March 11, 2010, 10:16 pm 10:16 pm
Wasn’t it obvious that Schutzman’s use of “point in time” was intended to spoof cliched writing? It was even highlighted, for crissakes. Maybe the schools need to do a better job teaching people how to recognize satire and metaphor. Going forward, of course.
Posted by: Tom K | March 12, 2010, 1:31 am 1:31 am
Why they are doing like this ?
Posted by: unique gift ideas | March 12, 2010, 5:19 am 5:19 am
Words and phrases which are over-used, even good ones, lose their potency, like a glass of wine left out too long.
Posted by: Candadai Tirumalai | March 12, 2010, 8:53 am 8:53 am
Good for him
Posted by: Keith | March 12, 2010, 9:57 am 9:57 am
I can tell you as one with excellent language and writing skills that many of the phrases in the above examples are not incorrect or redundant usage. Stock phrases are important in a medium such as radio–they allow the listener to get a handle on the subject matter without losing the thread of the discussion. The self-appointed language purists who are commenting here are the same holier-than-thou crowd who think everyone with mortgage trouble is a criminal, everyone who’s unemployed is a deadbeat, and everyone who believes in our obligation to others is a socialist. These people wouldn’t last a day in the world they imagine for everyone else…
Posted by: Rich | March 12, 2010, 12:06 pm 12:06 pm
I can understand banning some redundant phrases (fatal death) or mispronunciations, but most of these phrases are common idioms that are a natural part of every language. How is ‘torrential rain’ worse than saying ‘heavy rain’? What should replace a ‘killing spree’? What shall we call a death that came at a particularly surprising or inappropriate time if not an ‘untimely death’? Idioms help fulfill language’s main function: to communicate clearly.
Posted by: ShannonInCT | March 12, 2010, 12:26 pm 12:26 pm
Here in Chicago the debate over this is heating up.
Posted by: NChicago | April 1, 2010, 9:53 am 9:53 am