Chris Pash's Blog, page 11

Cliche of the Week 33 – Uphill Battle

Compelling stories are made from mighty struggles: a team facing overwhelming odds; an individual climbing a mountain of grief; a company challenging an economic storm.

"Many analysts have said LG will face an uphill battle in the tablet market, given the flood of devices being introduced this year." (Wall Street Journal Asia, February 16)

"They also have eight children, which has meant an uphill battle for them to convince anyone to lease them somewhere to live." (Manly Daily, February 16)

"Uphill battle" makes its mark around 750 times a week in mainstream media.

Cycling: "Even if fully fit, Romero will face an uphill battle to win a place in the British team." (The Guardian, February 15)

Soccer: "Hamilton may be bottom of the SPL and facing an uphill battle, but Andy Graham is loving every minute of it." (Daily Express, February 12)

Basketball: "It was always going to be an uphill battle for the Huskies, who had only 12 field goals on the night." (Chicago Daily Herald, February 12)

Cricket: "Wests face an uphill battle to save their first innings following the opening day of play in a two-day fixture at the weekend." (Gympie Times, February 15)

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the Week 32 – Fighting for Life

(With many thanks to Leith Phillips for suggesting this one)

Each day brings new struggles, some so severe that the needle of existence wavers between life and death. Newspapers record up to 200 times a week someone fighting for life after an accident or violent crime.

"A boy of 12 was last night fighting for his life after plunging down stairs at school." (The Sun, February 5)

"Tasmanian football legend Darrel Baldock is fighting for his life in the Mersey Community Hospital at Latrobe." (Hobart Mercury, February 1)

"A Liverpool FC fan who was repeatedly stabbed in his own home after inviting drinkers to a post-match party is still fighting for his life." (Liverpool Echo, January 31)

"A man is fighting for his life after he was attacked close to a Glasgow subway station." (Evening Times, January 31)

"A pregnant woman is fighting for her life in hospital after contracting swine flu." (Daily Express, January 25)

"A 20-year-old Sydney man is still fighting for life at St George Hospital." (Australian Associated Press, January 22)

"A 16-year-old boy injured on Monday remains fighting for his life in Waikato Hospital." (Waikato Times, January 14)

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the Week 31 – Golden Opportunity

(With thanks to Amanada Curtin in Western Australia for suggesting this one)

Opportunities emerge, and fade, with a golden glow that only some can perceive as a chance at the big one.

The sporting fields, the turmoil of the business world and the minds of politicians are fertile pastures for that golden opportunity.

The phrase slips into reporting in the mainstream media up to 700 times a week.

"Francisco Gonzalez, BBVA's chairman, said turmoil among Spain's savings banks — known as cajas — is a golden opportunity to grow, even as the local economy remains moribund." (The Wall Street Journal, February 3)

"In the 55th minute, they missed from point-blank range, and a few minutes later Risa Brudney crossed a ball to Fallon Vaughan in the box but she couldn't catch up to it, spoiling a golden opportunity." (St Petersburg Times, February 2)

"Anthony Elding, who ploughed a hapless lone furrow up front, had a golden opportunity to pull one back late on after a slip by Nick Fenton, but Warrington was off his line quickly to deny the striker." (Manchester Evening News, February 2)

"Tim Cobbold, the new chief executive of De La Rue, has a golden opportunity to reinvent the business." (The Daily Mail, January 22)

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the week 30 – in a nutshell

Ideas going forward should be in a soft shell, rather than a nutshell, where they can be easily peeled and digested.

"In a nutshell" appears about 700 needless times each week in the mainstream media globally.

In most cases the phrase can be dropped without changing meaning.

"In a nutshell, Mr Obama will be offering a plan to invest and grow, and Republicans will counter with a plan to cut and grow." (The Wall Street Journal, January 25)

"This museum, in a nutshell, is special." (The Oakland Tribune, January 23)

"And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between the prevalent views toward handguns in Canada versus the United States." (Vancouver Province, January 23)

"I am a bit of a foodie. I thought I understood food. In a nutshell, I had come to the conclusion that the best meals were made by the simple preparation of the finest ingredients." (Bristol Evening Post, January 22)

"That, in a nutshell, is the daunting business challenge facing Canada Post's newly named chief executive officer, Deepak Chopra." (The Globe and Mail, January 21)

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the Week 29 – Revolving door

(This week's phrase was submitted by Chris Donnolley of Hong Kong)

Life is a restless revolving door as we endlessly swap or discard our business leaders, sports stars and entertainers.

Journalists use revolving door 400 times a week as they try to describe the search for success; creating a winning sports team, a revenue-creating chief executive or a politician who follows the shifting centre of power.

Soccer: "But the move prompted a chaotic period in the club's history which ultimately resulted in relegation from the Premier League as the revolving door at St James' Park spun with increasing velocity." (The Irish Times, December 9)

Basketball: "Winder is the latest to exit what has been a revolving door for imports at the 36ers in the past few years." ( The Sunday Mail, Adelaide, December 5)

Politics: "There are supposedly strong Senate strictures against revolving-door lobbying abuses and quid pro quo dealings." (The New York Times, December 6)

Crime: "The sentencing Green Paper will aim to stop the revolving door of crime . . ." ( The Evening Times, Glasgow, December 7)

Business: "Among Wall Street firms, Goldman is mentioned much more often than Morgan Stanley for having a revolving door for executives . . ." (The Wall Street Journal, November 18  )

Cliche of the Week  appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the Week 28 – Accident waiting to happen

Most roads and economic highways are an accident waiting to happen.

We live with likely disasters and there's always someone willing to say, mostly after the fact, that this was an accident waiting to happen.

The phrase "an accident waiting to happen", generally used to connote a dangerous situation, gets used in mainstream reporting about 100 times a week.

"The North Shore Squash Club has spent thousands trying to stop people jumping into the lake, its president saying it was an accident waiting to happen." (NZ's Newstalk ZB, December 1)

"Traffic-calming measures could be implemented along a busy road in Wraxall, which residents have described as an accident waiting to happen." (Bristol Evening Post, November 30)

"Another accident waiting to happen could be a decision to appoint an unknown technocrat to lead the European Central Bank when Jean-Claude Trichet retires next autumn." (Financial Times, November 29)

"Observers are taking an increasingly dimmer view of Japan's economy, summed up today by New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini as an accident waiting to happen." (The Globe and Mail, November 2)

Cliche of the Week  appears Monday in The Australian newspaper.

Cliche of the Week 27 – Worst-case scenario

There's a lot to be scared of in the world, which is why we plan for a worst case.

News gatherers, who like to reflect the lives of the audiences they serve, type the phrase worst-case scenario about 1000 times a week in the English-speaking world.

The word "scenario" can be left out without changing the meaning. "Worst case" means that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. There is only one scenario.

"In the worst-case scenario for investors, months of effort can result in nothing." (The Wall Street Journal, November 22)

"But sooner or later, we're all going to have problems and the worst-case scenario, as Berners-Lee points out, is not so much the collapse of the web but its fragmentation." (The Sydney Morning Herald, November 25)

"The structures, under a worst-case scenario if the water rose over them, could give way." (The Tennessean, November 24)

"To prevent that worst-case scenario, Canadian and US officials agreed to transfer more water out of Devils Lake through controlled outlets." (Winnipeg Free Press, November 23)

Cliche of the Week  appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the Week 26 – Police were forced

(Thank you to Phil Dickson for submitting this Cliche of the Week. Apparently this one has ben annoying him for many years)

Police officers are easily pushed into changing tactics, closing roads and abandoning car chases.

Up to 60 news reports a week say "police were forced" when in fact they were reacting to a situation. Removing the compulsion will in most cases improve the sentence.

"Police were forced to call off the chase as Cane reached excessive speeds in 40 and 60km/h zones, but quickly spotted him near the Royal Hotel at Gatton." (Queensland Times, November 13)

"The police were forced to change their tactics on public order after last year's G20 protests in London led to accusations of brutality against several officers." (Financial Times, November 11)

"Police were forced to clear away some 60 tractors blocking the main road." (The Independent, November 8

"After a high-speed chase, police forced the inflatable craft to stop and arrested the skipper and eight others." (The Cape Argus, November 9).

"The accident tied up local traffic for several hours, as police were forced to shut down Routes 1 & 9″ (The Star-Ledger, NJ, November 5)

"Lincolnshire Police were forced to increase patrols in the village of Nettleham after residents reported a spate of summer burglaries." (The Yorkshire Post, November 15)

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the Week 25 – Rushed to the scene

Fire, police and ambulance services make haste to the train smash/house blaze/road accident.

That they are swift in response to an emergency is not news. A leisurely response would be the stuff of headlines.

The phrase "rushed to the scene" appears 300 times a week in mainstream reporting. It's the reverse of "fled the scene", something armed robbers do as a matter of form.

"Two navy boats rushed to the scene and sailors shot at the vessels carrying the gunmen and hostages." (Globe and Mail, November 9)

"Six ambulances and eight fire engines rushed to the scene. Luckily, only about 40 people were on the South West Trains service." (The Sun, November 6)

"Fire crews from Ashford and Charing rushed to the scene and were able to put the flames out before the fire spread out of the spare bedroom." (Kentish Express, October 28)

"When cops in Overland Park, Kansas, heard that someone had spotted a child's bloody leg sticking out of a car trunk, they rushed to the scene. It turned out, however, that the limb was a ghoulish Halloween prop." (New York Post, October 28)

"It was not until 21 minutes later paramedics who rushed to the scene managed to turn the life-support machine back on." (Western Daily Press, October 26)

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliche of the Week 24 – In the Pipeline

Those pipelines promising new projects, customers and rivers of gold have sprung a leak and infected mainstream news gatherers.

Going forward, these tubes to the future should be safety-checked regularly.

"In the pipeline", classic corporate-speak for "planned", appears in the media globally up to 2000 times a week.

"Bank chiefs have said in recent months there is a significant backlog of business loans in the pipeline but customers were not yet confident enough to finalise lending," (Dow Jones International News, October 27).

"There are a number of five-star hotels in the pipeline," (Times of India, October 25).

"San Juan Capistrano, California-based Axio Power Inc, another privately held concern with about 500 megawatts of projects in the pipeline," (Reuters News, October 20).

"Mr Ong said 110 productivity projects in companies from sushi restaurants to ammunition makers, have been approved. Another 80 are in the pipeline," (Straits Times, Oct 27).

"Work is well under way for Hidden Valley's new drag strip and there is already talk in the pipeline of what this has in store for the Northern Territory," (The West Australian, October 27).

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.