By Bob Yearick
Media Watch
• Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY, writing about Jordy Bahl, a Nebraska University softball player: “The former Oklahoma transfer hit four home runs in the Baton Rouge regional to give her 23 on the year, . . .” She is still an Oklahoma transfer. She’s a former Oklahoma player.
• Nate File, in The Philadelphia Inquirer: “The younger sister had her own room where the victim was allowed to sleep for awhile.” The two-word form a while is used when following a preposition or with ago or back (“a while ago/back”). Awhile is an adverb that means “for a while,” so eliminating for in this sentence would make it correct.
• Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY: “McAfee went to Irsay’s office to inform him of his decision to retire, and the 2-½-hour conversation ended with Irsay ensuring him that there was always a place for him with the Colts.” That would be assuring — removing all doubt. Ensuring means to make sure something happens — to guarantee it. Ensure is sometimes confused with insure, which means to cover something or someone with an insurance policy.
• Erin Jensen, USA TODAY, writing about former NBC Today host Hoda Kotb: “She’d recently began a breath work practice . . .” Began is the simple past tense of begin. Begun is the past participle, and the correct word here. If Jensen had written, “She recently began a breath work practice,” it would be correct. Also, She’d is a clumsy contraction, and a careful writer would have made it She had.
• Bedatri D. Choudhury, Inky: “Naaman’s unnamed wife’s unnamed young maid, captured from Israel by the Syrians, implored that Naaman seek healing from the prophet Elisha.” Implore requires an object, as in “She implored her master to seek healing from Elisha.”
• Michael Merot, of the Associated Press, writing about what the Indiana Pacers must fix in order to win the NBA Championship: “. . . the litany of bad passes that resulted in 20 turnovers . . .” Writers have developed a fondness for the word litany, because it sounds sophisticated. But they should keep in mind that it means “a tedious recital or repetitive series,” and is not just a synonym for a large quantity of something.
• A Facebook friend who is a former Inky sportswriter noted that ABC News Anchor George Stephanopoulos “was in high dungeon over presidential corruption.” The word is dudgeon — a feeling of offense or deep resentment.
Literally of the Month
Deborah Norville, after hosting her last Inside Edition: “I am literally swimming in gratitude.” Glug, glug, Deborah.
Department of Redundancies Dept.
• A PBS News announcer: “Alvarado had been using the drug for weight loss reduction.” Wait, was he using it to lose weight or to reduce weight loss?
• The Inky reported that Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said he felt “nauseous” and “like I was going to throw up.” Nauseous: “a stomach distress with distaste for food and an urge to vomit.” (Also “extreme disgust.”)
• WDEL traffic reporter: “You have traffic merging together at . . .” As opposed to merging apart?
• A reader found this, unbelievably, in The New York Times: “Teams of masked agents in masks have approached foreign students, zip-tied them and bundled them into unmarked vehicles.”
Add-on Prepositions
The media seems intent on adding prepositions to verbs that don’t need them. Have you noticed, for instance, that add now must be followed by in. E.g., “Don’t forget to add in the tip”?
The play-by-play announcer for a recent WNBA game between the Indiana Fever and the New York Liberty took it to another level by noting that the Indiana Pacers head coach was in the stands: “As Rick Carlisle watches on . . .” Watches requires a direct object but no preposition, since a preposition is part of the definition: “looks at something for a period of time.” Looks on is the accepted term.
Social Media Word of the Month
Phubbing, a portmanteau of phone and snubbing, is the now common act of ignoring immediate social interactions in favor of your smartphone.
Word of the Month
Éclaircissement
A noun meaning the clearing up of something obscure; enlightenment. The word that won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee for 13-year-old Faizan Zaki of Texas, it’s pronounced a-clair-sis-a-mah.
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