The list is so-so.
My personal choice: “some say…” Used continually by Katie Couric, David Gregory and oh, basically anyone in the press who wanted to advance their own personal opinion or the general concensus of the fourth estate: “Some say President Bush is trying to undermine our civil liberties,” “Some say Iraq is a quagmire,” “Some say America is a world-bully,” “Some say if only the Kyoto treaty had been recognised…”
Just once, I would like to hear a politician come back with, “WHO says? WHO exactly SAYS, Katie, David, Tim, etc”
They’d never spill the true answer, though, “why, WE say, WE in the press!”
What is your choice for most annoying phrase? The folks at Lucianne have some good ones!
Bingo! ‘Some say’, the ultimate weasel wording, drives me nuts. We all know that the ‘some’ are the gang at the Times and WaPo water coolers. Agree that their bluff should be called by some brave soul. (Who unfortunately is probably yet to be born.)
Whenever a liberal says, “Clearly, the American people agree with us that…”
Drives me up the wall!
Some said Iraq was a quagmire 72 hours into the war, etc., etc. America is on to their little game. Nina Totenberg can say that she doesn’t think she is liberal…”If you say I am liberal, you’d have to say Newsweek is liberal…” We do, Nina. We do. One day people will wake up and wonder why they are even paying attention to people that can’t be honest about who they are.