Countless Whining

A few posts back, Lord Kingly spoke of irresponsible journalists who liked to use various catch words. The most notable word Lord Kingly discussed was "countless" which I must admit gives endless possibilities to a journalist when they want to make a bad situation so much worse. The phrase "countless bodies" makes the reader believe that there were so many dead people lying around, the English language has yet to develop a word to actually explain the total number. I would like to add a couple of other choice words/phrases journalists love to play around with.

1. "Most Experts." I love this one. It kind of gives me the image of a group of really smart guys sitting in a room to discuss an issue. For example: "Most experts agree that the Iraq war is an unmitigated disaster." Don't you feel like these experts took a vote and the only reason why they can't write "all experts" is because of various bathroom breaks or cell phone interruptions during the hand count? What makes this sentence even better is the word "unmitigated." I don't know what this word means, all I know is it turns disaster into a really bad disaster.

2. "Could have." Journalists are suppose to report what did happen, but this little beauty gives them the opportunity to report what they wanted to happen. For example. "The syringe thrown at Barry Bonds could have had a needle on it. Therefore, this was a dangerous situation so anyone who throws anything on the field should be arrested." My question: What about beach balls? How about oppposing hitter home run balls at Wrigley Field? Should all those people be arrested? And the idea that the syringe COULD HAVE had a needle is so lame. It didn't. If someone threw a beach ball at Barry Bonds COULDN'T they HAVE duct tape a Bowie knife to it as well before throwing said object?

Please add any of your favorites to this growing list.