Lagman, Jr., asking me to comment on the frequent use nowadays of the phrase “on the ground” by personalities in the news. I’d like to share with readers this rather provocative e-mail from business columnist Oscar P. “on the ground”-Particularly overused in news reporting, this phrase conveys no additional information. The Community Writing Center in Salt Lake City
Pleasingly, some Googling turned up others who found the phrase unnecessary for the same reasons I did. This isn't a major problem like global warming. I'm hoping that the inappropriate use of those words has hit a peak and will soon decline. Whereas a school administrator relating how school board meetings are going when anti-mask parents show up doesn't deserve an on the ground. I can accept using that phrase in a sentence such as "We're going live to our reporter embedded on the ground with a Marine force engaged in a firefight on the Pakistan border." Even here, on the ground doesn't add any information, but it conveys a sense of dangerous on-the-spot immediacy. Adding in that phrase seems intended to denote a sense that the reporter is right in the thick of something important, the original meaning of "on the ground."īut today I heard a MSNBC anchor say something like this to a guest: "Tell us what it's like to be on the ground of a contentious school board meeting these days." Take out the on the ground and we know all that's needed: Fleming is reporting from Afghanistan. Otherwise, it's obvious that he's on the ground. "We turn now to David Fleming reporting on the ground from Afghanistan" would only make sense if Fleming sometimes broadcast his segment while hovering in the air or buried in the earth.
I've noticed that on the ground is being used much more frequently in news shows. "I'm writing this blog post here in my house in rural south Salem, Oregon" is completely accurate all by itself. Leaving it out takes nothing away that needs saying. Does me saying "on the ground" add anything to that sentence? I'm writing this blog post on the ground here in my house in rural south Salem, Oregon.
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