Don’t want to do any research? Time for some weasel language

20 December 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

The Media Guardian has a curious article today on the effect that John Spencer’s death will have on The West Wing. I say curious because it seems to be written by someone who doesn’t know that much about how television works and can’t even be bothered to find out. Take this quote

The West Wing, which is in production on its seventh season and is thought to have got two or three episodes in the can before Spencer died…

“Is thought to have” is a great weasel phrase. You can use it in all sorts of articles. You can use it for making statements that you don’t have the facts to confirm, the confidence to assert or which may even be completely untrue (eg “The Prime Minister is thought to have refused the deal in no uncertain language”, “President Bush is thought to have taken bribes from Osama bin Laden”).

Continue reading “Don’t want to do any research? Time for some weasel language”

Art

Is ‘Samson and Delilah’ a fake?

19 December 2005 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Samson

Salon gives good coverage to the argument around the Rubens painting’s authenticity. You can see the full painting at the National Gallery and I have to agree with detractors: I took one look at it and thought there was no way it was a Rubens. It really was a load of old tatt.

A few fun things about the article: the usual amusing Americanisms that appear whenever discussing anything foreign (eg “A London computer expert”); that the left-leaning Salon only quotes the equally left-wing The Guardian (Simon Schama’s review at that!) and the New Statesman as authoritative British journals; and the fact Euphrosyne Doxiadis seems to be a ‘divvy‘.