10 Things the Media Should Stop Saying
2 min readAug 12, 2023
- Stop saying “Small d democratic.” We’re not morons. We know the difference between the Democratic Party and democratic institutions. I even heard Rachel Maddow go so far as to say, “Small d democracy,” which makes no sense whatsoever.
- Stop confusing anarchy with chaos. Anarchy is an social system without leaders; it is not necessarily synonymous with chaos.
- Stop confusing fascism & xenophobia with populism. Marine Le Pen is not a populist. Pandering to and stoking of people’s basest fears is not populism.
- Stop saying,”Both sides do it,” when you’re talking about something terrible one side has done. You don’t have to protect yourself from accusations of partisanship by flimsy attempts at false equivalency.
- Stop calling the country the Homeland when reporting on national security. It sounds quasi-fascist and it sprang from the Bush Administration’s attempt to delegitimize domestic dissent after September 11, 2001. Call it, “the nation,” or “the country,” like we did for the first 230 years.
- Stop calling ISIS, “the so-called Islamic State.” It’s not your job to editorialize about enemies of our state. Just call them whatever they call themselves.
- Stop calling famous entertainers “legends.” They are not.
- Stop stating national…
