Occasionally I'll vent about phrases I hate. Today it's "speak truth to power." Why pick on this one? Saw it today in the The New York Times and it reminded me that, hey, I hate this phrase.
A Google News search found 98 instances of the phrase being used in the past month. The Huffington Post likes it a lot -- five times in the last month alone. And of course the NYTimes, the LATimes, the little-read Washington Times, and the Irish Times, all of these have used it. Hell, even Patch used it.
It's not that I dislike the sentiment -- other than people lucky enough to be in power, who could be against it? I detest a phrase that's become so easy to say or write. It's one of those first level phrases a good writer easily types, and quickly deletes. The lazy writers? They keep it in.
Yeah, I'm pointing at you Bill Keller in today's NYTimes. You should know better. I'll have to wrap my copy of the paper into a stick and smack you in the nose with aged news.
The last phrase I vented on was "I'm just saying," so let me be clear: I'm just saying that I hate the phrase "speak truth to power."
I'm just saying.
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