The purpose of police Twitter accounts is to inform people about public safety. The purpose of passive voice is (often) to avoid responsibility. These don’t go together well. Today we examine how the Los Angeles Police used passives that twist the truth into bizarre shapes in describing police shootings. A correspondent brought to my attention…
![Incomplete pass[ive]: Bill Belichick rejects the Presidential Medal of Freedom](https://bernoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/medal-of-freedom.jpg)
Donald Trump proposed to give New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Belichick’s statement declining the honor twists, turns, and lies down passively like a quarterback about to be sacked by the defense. A bit of background. Belichick is part of the holy trinity of New England football, along with…
In a one-sentence ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected the Trump administration’s plea to overturn the election result in Pennsylvania. But what a sentence! The background: U.S. Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania filed a document to overturn the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and nullify the election result in Pennsylvania, where…
Greg Glassman was CEO of Crossfit, a fitness system that is affiliated with many gyms. He shared insane and racially insensitive conspiracy theories on a call with gym owners — and then the company issued a rambling and ineffective statement to justify itself. Glassman’s now out the door. The statement is practically a case study…
The New York Times tweeted this over the weekend: At this moment in time, there are hidden stories in the choices that headline writers write. An active voice headline tells who did what. Two of these headlines are passive. A passive voice headline tells what happened, but hides the who. Minneapolis: A photographer was shot…
One of the most pernicious of pieces on the opinion pages of our newspapers is the passive voice editorial, which pleads that something must be done — but doesn’t suggest who should do it. That’s particularly worrisome during the current pandemic, because we already know that things are screwed up and people are dying. We…
You wrote something. It’s not the best it can be. You could hire an editor. Or you could fix it yourself. Sure, if you can’t really figure out what you’re saying, you might need outside help. But before you do, try these tricks: Make sentences shorter. Find sentences of more than 20 words. Break them…
Two years ago, Equifax blamed an “application vulnerability” for a “cybersecurity incident” that exposed personal data of 143 million consumers. Last week, it agreed to pay $125 to any affected person who asks for it. Unfortunately, that’s another lie. Here’s what it says on the Equifax Breach Settlement site: Welcome To The Equifax Data Breach…
Somebody did something dumb in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Here’s the text of a post from the town’s official Facebook page: There as been an incident in town that we want make citizens aware of. A RHS baseball game at Governor Park was delayed due to weather conditions on the field this morning. A poor decision was…