Sonia Jaffe Robbins, professor of journalism, responded to my desperate plea that she inflict the Banned for Life list on her impressionable young newsies. Sonia’s reply:

I love your “banned” page. Yes, it goes to my students, immediately.
And here are my contributions, just off the top of my head (there are
many more deep in my memory bank, and I hope they stay there):

“Approximately 375…” or any exact number. Yes,
I know the harried copy editor doesn’t want to write out that number
at the beginning of a sentence, but surely there are other ways to
recast.

Anyone on trial who is “found innocent.” No jury
finds the accused innocent; the verdict is “not guilty.”
Yes, I know the fear of dropping the word “not” and publishing
“guilty” instead of “not guilty,” but in these
days of computerized type and layout, that isn’t likely to happen
anymore, is it?

Investigators are always sifting through the rubble after
airplane crashes. Please have them do something else.

“It’s a no-brainer.” It certainly is a no-brainer
to come up with this phrase. Maybe writers and editors could try using
their brains to say something else?

And the person in the hospital who “fights for life.”