Journalists’ strange obsession with salmon
One stray clip from the Schiavo case ... We journalists are often criticized for our lazy, formulaic word use. But who else but a journalist would be creative enough to mix a metaphor this way? Does any other group of writers make such prodigious use of the hyphenated participle? (From CNN’s obit)
Her relatives and friends never reached a consensus on whether the Florida resident would have wanted to linger for so long in what doctors called a persistent vegetative state. However, all who knew her agree the once-bashful woman would have shunned the litigation-spawned spotlight.
First, can a spotlight be spawned? Second, is litigation literally seminal? (It’s best not to think about it.) Here’s M-W:
spawn: Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French espaundre, from Old French espandre to spread out, expand, from Latin expandere
intransitive senses
1 : to deposit spawn
2 : to produce young especially in large numbers
transitive senses
1 a : to produce or deposit (eggs)—used of an aquatic animal b : to induce (fish) to spawn c : to plant with mushroom spawn
2 : BRING FORTH, GENERATE
- spawn·er noun
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