WBA NewsroomDid the suspect flee on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash? Does the incident remain under investigation?
Or, did the robber run off with the money – and we just assume the incident remains under investigation, because all such incidents remain under investigation (even though that shopworn cliché phrase was the last sentence of the police report).
Horrible news writing is usually rife with “news-speak” or “journalese” – a form of English only written by careless practitioners who’ve never been adequately coached.
Some news-speak/journalese is stuff that’s been around forever and just keeps popping up – like “fled on foot”, a phrase you’ll frequently find in police reports but never in spoken English.
And some newer forms of news-speak/journalese just appear, like saying “welcome in” instead of simply “welcome”, or using the word “closure” instead of “closing”. These things are repeated because news writers hear them, and they tend to use them until they get worn out and then they just seem to disappear.
Here’s a great short article on one of the latest fads, from a disciple of Merv Block, one of the best TV news writers of all time.
Posted by Tim Morrissey