Deflective passive-voice writing

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Notes and Comment Blog

June 6, 2025

I see I’m not the only one taken aback by that Guardian article – to put it mildly.

This is the kind of terrible, deflective, passive-voice writing that we (or at least I) tell students to avoid. 'it could be argued that…' '*perceived* reduced rights'
All sorts of silly things can be argued. All sort of misperceptions exist. The existence of silly… https://t.co/ahMyayLHwW
— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) June 6, 2025

The first paragraph has now been slightly changed but the headline remains defamatory
— Akua Reindorf KC (@akuareindorf) June 6, 2025

Now the headline is changed.

A principled news outlet would explain there is no material reduction in rights. This is weaseling. https://t.co/Tzoqs6UAAc pic.twitter.com/r40bO2tCFE
— SEEN in Journalism (@JournalismSEEN) June 6, 2025

Journalism warped by a deranged ideology.

Comments

2 responses to “Deflective passive-voice writing”

Bjarte Foshaug

Jun 7, 2025 2:05 AM

It’s not just the journalists either. I use Feedly to keep up with the activities here on B&W. Whenever a topic is “trending” on this supposedly “neutral” platform, any entry related to the trending topic gets a tag added to its headline (linking to other entries about the topic etc.). In this case the tag text reads “EHRC commissioner calls for reduced rights”. Some nice well-poisoning right there…
Ophelia Benson

Jun 7, 2025 3:46 AM

Argh!

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