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Media Matters
Jan. 13, 2003
Note to NPR Editors: Fight Clichés Like the Plague!
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
Writing for the radio is different from other forms of journalism. It's writing for the ear, not the eye. Reporters and editors in radio write to engage the listeners. When done well, the listener should be complicit in the act of imagination -- seeing events in his or her mind as described by the reporter or the host and burnished by the appropriate use of sound to create that auditory landscape.
That's the theory.
In practice, odd turns of phrase, adjectival pile-ups and general clunkiness and clangers simply get in the way of the listeners who tend to tune out when the writing sounds labored or clichéd.
As Long As Your Arm?
Recently, I thought I heard more than a few clichés on Morning Edition. To see if my impressions were valid, I printed out the transcripts for that day's program -- excluding the newscasts. As I read through the scripts, it was not a pretty sight:
· Operating under the assumption...
· Escalating war of words...
· On the brink of war...
· A medley of sounds...
· The diplomatic fallout...
· A wave of anti-American sentiment is sweeping...
· U.S. on the edge of war...
· Other news gets short shrift...
· A package of financial incentives...
· Cushion the blow...
· Wreak havoc...
· Shoulder the costs...
· A watered-down policy riddled with loopholes...
· Pressing foreign concerns...
· Light at the end of the tunnel...
· Back on track...
· Massive boycott...
· Vowing to fight...
· Latest polls...
· Bend to their will...
· Connect the dots...
· Enthusiasm was curbed...
· Uphill battle...
· Selling like hotcakes...
· A barrage of questions...
· Under intense scrutiny...
Clichés Happen
Sometimes clichés slip into scripts because the reporter may be filing under arduous circumstances: from a war zone, on deadline or other non-optimal conditions.
Even the most crusty editor might forgive a lapse under those circumstances. The editor should immediately ask the reporter to refile the story, and this time without those annoying phrases, please.
Clichés can be useful, on very rare occasions. They can provide a brief description of complex situations that everyone can understand. In radio, with its time restrictions, this might prove useful. This is where the editing process is indispensable.
Editors at NPR operate in that twilight zone between reporters and programs. Everyone knows the reporters, but few remember the editors. As a former editor, while I know it's unfair, that's reality in a newsroom. Even so, nothing at NPR gets on the air unless it has first been checked by an editor.
The editors are an essential link between the raw facts and the finished product that is readied for broadcast. Busying themselves with ridding a script of clichés may seem less important than the overall crafting of the story.
But clichés make a report sound lazy to me, especially when the report may have been ready for a day or two before airtime. It is as though the writer and the editor (whose job it is to get them out of the script) are operating on automatic. And if the writer doesn't appear to care, why should the listener?
Sharper blue pencils please at NPR!
Listeners may contact me at 202-513-3246 or at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
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