"Not all midterm elections are created equal."
That's the lede from a CNN.com story published last month.*
Did anyone else throw up in their mouth a little?
Stepping away from the fact that clichés in journalistic writing make me want to punch an entire bus of Girl Scouts (and steal their cookies), the overuse of these pearls of wisdom does a disservice to overbearing advice-givers everywhere. After all, clichés are based on truth, and they're usually right. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, two wrongs don't make a right, and yes, CNN, not all [fill in the blank] are created equal.
The problem is that we're so desensitized to clichéd phrases that we've ceased to pay attention to what they actually mean. We've been hearing these things for so long and in so many contexts that we start to tune them out and not take the advice to heart. If Mom says, "Don't worry sweetie, there are plenty of fish in the sea"...well, we roll our eyes and go back to our tub of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream.
But Mom's right. Both literally and figuratively, there are a lot of fish in the sea. (Which, according to this guy, is great for the guys but not for the gals. Though he's kind of an asshole.) Point being, while you were indulging in Ben & Jerry fantasies, Mom's advice sat there, stagnant, useless on the living room floor. We give advice and comfort each other using clichés that guarantee we won't really appreciate the wisdom until after we needed it.
Clichés in journalism are a whole 'nother animal. That's just blasphemously lazy writing.
* It took me exactly six seconds on Google, skimming news stories, to find one that lead with a cliché. This is not an uncommon problem, people.
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