Allegedly Controversial and Problematic

Just in case you don’t already know, the purpose of television news is not to inform.  Even in those rare cases where the news anchor is actually trying to impart information that could affect your life, that goal secondary at best. 

The true purpose of news is to sell cars and mattresses and prescription medications with possible side-effects that should scare you silly.  The twelve to sixteen minutes of actual news in a thirty minute news program are just there to separate the Escalades from the Viagra.

A hundred years ago, It used to be the watchword that gore sells papers.  Now it is Gospel in the news business that Controversy generates revenue.  That is why the TV news goes out of its way to find controversial issues to report, builds them up as much as possible, and continues to report on them ad nauseum.  Just in case you didn’t notice, they will tell you that the subject is controversial.

It is almost impossible to view any 30-minute newscast, on any network or local station, without being told that something is controversial.  That word is going to said at least once, I guarantee it.

Of course, controversial isn’t the only word being overused and/or misused on TV news.  As the headline on this post implies, Alleged(ly) and Problematic are right up there with Controversial.

Alleged, like Suspect, is a C-Y-A word the news uses to say something without leaving themselves open to a possible lawsuit.  It serves a valid purpose, but is widely overused – as in “The homeowner Allegedly shot the Alleged Suspect when he caught him ransacking the house at three a.m.”

The constant use of Problematic makes even less sense.  I suspect that it was first used because it sounded intelligent.  Unfortunately, it has so many possible meanings that it might as well be meaningless.  Here are just a few – ambiguous, dubious, moot, precarious, puzzling, questionable, tricky, uncertain, arguable, debatable, doubtful, enigmatic, suspect and up for grabs. And that’s not all, the list goes on – look it up. In spite of this, something is going to be described as problematic on any newscast you watch.  That is not problematic – you can take it to the bank.

I’m not trying to generate controversy - not even allegedly implying that you shouldn’t watch the news.  It’s problematic, but you might accidentally learn something.