I’ve been wondering something for a while now. Exactly when did news anchors decide that verbs were a bad thing?
It hit me one day as I was watching a national news broadcast. The anchor would say things like “Up next: civil unrest in the Sudan”. Not “there’s been civil unrest in the Sudan” or “civil unrest is on the rise in the Sudan”. No verbs whatsoever.
At what point did the news agencies of America decide that they needed the extra .02 seconds of time they saved by skipping all forms of be? It makes the English major in me cringe to watch Cookie Monster English go out over the airwaves.
I especially like hearing news anchors bemoaning the dumbing down of America and deteriorating writing skills while actively contributing to the problem. Irony much?
