topic Media People & Poor Word Choice in TV and Movies

Media People & Poor Word Choice

Black Cat Back — Sun, 25 May 2014 22:20:38 GMT

This is a real pet peeve of mine. Lately, I've heard media people, whether on major news channels or "celebrities" on talk shows and others incorrectly use the word "infamous."

The word "infamous" means someone or something that has a bad reputation, shameful or disgraceful.

Yet just the other day, I heard someone on CNN talk about Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who went to fight and was killed in the line of duty. The reporter said, "We all recall when Pat Tillman, the "infamous" Marine who gave up his life in the NFL to go fight after 9/11..."

I was appalled to hear him say "infamous" instead of "famous."

I hear it all the time on TV. I heard Sherri Shepherd from "The View" say it incorrectly recently. Many of the local TV people where I live use "infamous" to describe someone who is "famous." I even heard the HSN host, Lynn Murphy, describe a piece of jewelry as "Similar to the infamous NY designer we all know." Perhaps it was an awful piece of jewelry!

It's scary to think that so many successful people do not have a clue of what words mean.

Re: Media People & Poor Word Choice

gardenman — Sun, 25 May 2014 22:31:42 GMT

My favorite is the local TV anchors/reporters who have turned "effort" into a verb. "We're efforting to learn more about this situation." No, you're not. You're trying, attempting, working, etc. to learn more, but not "efforting." "Efforting" isn't a word!!!!! I'm guessing they say it to make their job look harder than standing around holding a microphone while waiting for a press conference, but it drives me a bit nuts.

Re: Media People & Poor Word Choice

Black Cat Back — Sun, 25 May 2014 22:32:47 GMT

gardenman,

So true! Perhaps they all went to the same "infamous" broadcasting school.

Re: Media People & Poor Word Choice

keri — Mon, 26 May 2014 00:08:55 GMT

Amen. It's gratifying to hear "civilians" complain, just as those of us who once worked as broadcast journalists do now almost on a daily basis. Why don't they just say "notorious"? Another word pair some of them fail to grasp is "flammable" and "inflammable." Ugh! The few standards that exist currently are being lowered constantly. That's what happens when you hire inexperienced, poorly educated but inexpensive neophytes. National news is bad, but the local yokels are worse. I just e-mailed one of our stellar local news reporters, politely but firmly informing her that "drugged" (sic)/"drug" (sic) is NOT the past tense of "drag."

Re: Media People & Poor Word Choice

ennui1 — Mon, 26 May 2014 00:50:42 GMT

On 5/25/2014 keri said: Another word pair some of them fail to grasp is ""flammable"" and ""inflammable.""

Those actually mean the same thing.

Re: Media People & Poor Word Choice

Cyndog — Mon, 26 May 2014 07:48:52 GMT

Gets worse every day too.