I'm annoyed with "reached out"

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Oh. This is apparently a thing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFsDnn9FjOQ[/youtube]

There are a bunch of others listed under Conan media watch on youtube.

Sad.

Boomerang? I'm a tad confused with this one. Why are you shocked at the level of schlock and garbage that happens on local and even network TV news. This goofy emphasis on nonnews nonsense has been par for the course ever since local TV news was created and shoved down our collective throats.

Local TV news is full of garbage and chock full of press releases as news items (M&M's ____ anniversary; Twinkies are coming back; etc...). The person who chooses to consume this nonsense for their daily news diet doesn't have the right to complain about it. (I hope you don't watch it ... even on a once a week basis).

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

I believe that "ambush journalism" was invented by one of the 20th century's crappiest reporters, Geraldo Buick Riviera.

Ambush journalism is still a thing and still as trashy as ever.

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@tsarstepan,

I think I probably just never noticed it and then couldn't stop noticing it.

To me, a journalist might "reach out" to the victims of a tornado -- people who are hard to get in touch with -- but they would "call" or "ask" or even "email" Costco (or their congressman, or whoever) because they're not all that difficult to get in contact with.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

When did "reach out" become the journalistic words of choice?

"Our station reached out to ________ but they had no comment".

Has this been going on for years and years and years or didn't journalist
used to say things like "called", "attempted to speak with", "left a message for", etc.

I just watched a news bit where the journalist "reached out to Costco....".

To me "reached out" implies trying to help someone.

Is it just me this annoys?

About 3O years ago, I founded a special interest group for NY Mensa.
It was a fine dining group.
I called it the Opulent Mensan SIG.
I booked us into some good restaurants, but I found that folks
who had committed themselves to attend (reserved with me)
defaulted in appearance; embarrassing qua the restaurants.

As an act of self defense, I began taking their fone numbers
and called them the nite before so that thay 'd not forget to arrive.
It was to help them remember.

I called my telefone reminders: "the Opulent Outreach" program,
"reaching out to the Opulent of Mensa to remind them to come."
The acronym is "OO". I 'm thinking of beginning a new OM SIG
for Florida Mensa, now that I ' m here. Say "hello" to Mo for me.

David

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@boomerang,

Maybe you haven't heard "take a decision", but I bet you know someone who "takes meetings".

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@boomerang,

"Reached out to" doesn't drive me as crazy as some other media pop culture phrases. It's not as grammatically incorrect as some of the others. And it's not inaccurate--it does mean to try to make contact with someone or something, as in, "I reached out to take her hand." It's just less precise than saying, "I tried to contact her", or specifying the mode of contact, "I called her" or "I e-mailed her".

After a while, you hear these phrases used so often, they begin to sound normal.

The one that absolutely drives me nuts, and that I cannot adapt to, is when they say someone "went missing."

http://www.kitchendetailsanddesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/pulling-hair-out-women-large.jpg

Every time I hear them say something like, "He went missing on Tuesday," it's like hearing fingernails scraping across a blackboard. How can anyone "go missing"? Is "missing" an activity you engage in, like going swimming?

What happened to, "He hasn't been seen or heard from since Tuesday," or, "He dropped out of sight on Tuesday,"? Or just, "He's been missing since Tuesday"? Who, and why, threw "went" into it? And why did everyone in the media adopt it? Rolling Eyes

If I ever stop posting here, don't anyone dare post in the LOST & MISPLACED A2K people thread that, "Firefly went missing last month," unless you want me to haunt you to your grave.

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@firefly,

firefly wrote:

The one that absolutely drives me nuts, and that I cannot adapt to, is when they say someone "went missing."

This took me aback, because in British usage "going missing" is absolutely standard and very widespread and has been for maybe 100 years, probably more. Seeking elucidation, I saw that Collins American Dictionary says "originally an informal Brit. usage". I guess this is one of those British English usages that has crossed to the US.

I think that we often use "go" in phrasal verbs that are to do with changing or becoming - when milk spoils, we can say it "goes off"; meat goes bad, bread can go stale, batteries can go flat, hot things can go cold, dead people go stiff, you could go red, pale, bald, blind or deaf, etc etc.

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

Maybe you haven't heard "take a decision",
but I bet you know someone who "takes meetings".

I 'm used to going to meetings, or attending them.

Maybe it was a typo for "make a decision".

David

1 Reply

@firefly,

firefly wrote:

The one that absolutely drives me nuts, and that I cannot adapt to, is when they say someone "went missing."

What happened to, "He hasn't been seen or heard from since Tuesday,"
or, "He dropped out of sight on Tuesday,"?
Or just, "He's been missing since Tuesday"?
Who, and why, threw "went" into it?
And why did everyone in the media adopt it?

If I ever stop posting here, don't anyone dare post in the LOST & MISPLACED A2K people thread
that, "Firefly went missing last month," unless you want me to haunt you to your grave.

Well said; so stipulated.

David

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@contrex,

Right on, contrex. Even though I'm American, I was well aware that "went missing" is a long-time Britishism and couldn't quite understand why anyone should object to its use this side of the pond.

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@Lustig Andrei,

because its weird

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@OmSigDAVID,

No, typos do not occur with such frequencies. Maybe they were going to take the meeting somewhere else and hold it for ransom.

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@roger,

It cud HAPPEN that thay take the meeting somewhere else.
It did. I remember a trial in NY, when a bailiff
(thay call them "Uniformed Court Officers") told the presiding judge
that there was a plumbing emergency elsewhere on the floor.
We had to TAKE the trial to another courtroom on another floor.

David

1 Reply

@firefly,

Quote:

The one that absolutely drives me nuts, and that I cannot adapt to, is when they say someone "went missing."

I didn't know this was British English - it's perfectly standard here in Australia as well.

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@Pearlylustre,

Yeah, but all you diggers are upside-down and the blood all rushed to your heads.

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Those Americans who find "went missing" an annoyance (and they have every right to feel that way about linguistic instrusions and novelties, if they want to) will be getting a taste of how many Brits feel when they hear people asking "can I get..." in a shop or café, or hear that frequently occurring things happen "oftentimes", or hear that something that was free was "for free". Just saying.

1 Reply

@Pearlylustre,

Pearlylustre wrote:

I didn't know this was British English - it's perfectly standard here in Australia as well.

Australian English, is, more or less, British English.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Pearlylustre wrote:

I didn't know this was British English - it's perfectly standard here in Australia as well.

Australian English, is, more or less, British English.

Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Quote:

Right on, contrex. Even though I'm American, I was well aware that "went missing" is a long-time Britishism and couldn't quite understand why anyone should object to its use this side of the pond.

Because, to American ears, it sounds grammatically incorrect--particularly when it's coming from the mouths of American broadcast journalists.

Just because the Brits do it doesn't make it right. They also spell funny too (defence, realise,etc.), and omit the article in sentences like "go to hospital" or "go to university", where American speakers would say, "go to the hospital" . Laughing

Knowing it's perfectly acceptable in the U.K. doesn't make it any less grating to my ears.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Great! And ever since, I suppose you guys have been taking trials.

1 Reply

I'm annoyed with "reached out"

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