New Rules: The Media Must Retire The Phrase "Some People Say"

[stopbush]

and its many variations (people are saying, many would say, etc).

In its place, the media must cite an actual person/company, whatever who is making
such a claim.

Examples:

"Some people would say that attacking the president in a time of war is unpatriotic," becomes

"Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity said that attacking the president in a time of war is unpatriotic."


"Many people say the economy is booming," becomes

"Polls show that the super rich - those who make over $25-million a year - think the economy is booming.
Everyone else is struggling."

:)

[rock]

1. Well, you're certainly right that

"Some people say..." is not a report; but then the media is not exactly "news" either. I do agree with your sentiment. It's a shame that news reporting has turned into enfotainment.

[Supersedeas]

2. they are merely immulating the President

[reichstag911]

5. It would be sweet if someone...

...immolated the president! I suspect, however, you wanted to write "emulating."

[treestar]

3. Exactly! It's gossip, not news.

[ContraBass Black]

4. Without straw men,

The cable news-talk lineup would be decimated.

[havocmom]

6. Been watching Outfoxed again?

;) I love the part of that expose where they show how that phrase is used as a weapon to interject opinion into a news cast and as a method of interjecting what is not provable fact into discussions between the talking heads doing talking points. It is a tool of lying with plausible deny-ability as in: Some people say Saddam has WMD and is connected with the terrorists who brought down the WTC. It makes connections in people's minds but gives the liar an out, because no one knows who 'some' are and so we can't hold them accountable when the info is proved to be lies. It is all part of the brainwashing.

You are right, it needs to be stopped. We need to encourage more people to use critical thinking.

[stopbush]

7. Wow, you can see into the future!!

I've not seen the movie, but it is being delivered to me today thru Netflix. I'm not kidding.

How'd you know that? Holy shit!

[havocmom]

8. havocmom has powers beyond the understanding of regular mortals

;)

[KyuzoGator]

9. "Some say" is defined as "weasel words" by Wikipedia.

It's a shame that a publicly-edited online encyclopedia has higher journalistic standards than the network news.

[IChing]

10. Tom Tomorrow's take on this...cartoon