Read No Evil
[Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 2004]

Your very own decoder for family-friendly journalese

By RICHARD MORGAN

Newspaperspeak is the coded language that family-friendly newspapers employ to inform without offending, in a world where the words “pregnant” and “homosexual” were once considered profane. If you ever wondered just want a reporter was trying to say, here’s a brief guide:

Newspaperspeak: Translation
Abuse: torture
Urban: black
Reform: change
Mainstream: centrist
Centrist: inoffensive
Controversial: not centrist
Energy: oil
Sex act: blowjob
Mob: lots of nonwhites
Throng: lots of whites
Trend: three examples
Anecdotal evidence: not even three examples

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