'New records' and redundant language
Professional news writers are trained to economize their words. They do so as a sign of respect to the audience, as well as in the name of clarity. Why make people read more words than necessary?
And yet, when we speak, we often toss in extra and unnecessary words. (See what I did there?) On behalf of an NPR audience member, we interviewed two respected editors about a particular redundancy that shows up all over the place in spoken and written language. And we got two opinions on whether this common quirk in our speech is worth the effort to excise it from our news reports.
Ultimately, we suspect it's a phrase that most people don't even notice, but those who do find it annoying. Read on to discover which group you fall into.
We address a second audience member concerned that a labor story glossed over Senate Democrats' stance on COVID vaccine mandates. The reporter on
