From Jeffrey Whitmore:
Ban forever the wrap-up line so loved by TV news people:
“. . . and that’s what it’s all about!” It’s typically
uttered (with a smarmy smile) after a heartwarming shot of an indigent
family eating day-old bread donated by the corporate sponsors of a
golf tournament in Palm Springs,Pebble Beach, or on the north forty
of the Taj Mahal.
And do away with its sickening brethren:
. . . “but the big [or real] winner in the event was charity.
On reflection, Jeffrey added the following:
Soon after I sent the “charity” cliche I recalled another,
possibly more cloying one. It’s the spunky lede that begins with a
truism. Next comes an invitation to the reader to agree. And then
comes the zinger. For example:
“Real gourmets don’t drink red wine with fish, right?
Wrong!”
Another purgative worthy of banishment:
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I just ran an “exact phrase” Hotbot web search on the expression
and came up with 2,961 citations. For each of the many I checked out,
I could readily imagine fifty billion or so statements that were further
from the truth.