Issues cover up everything.

In our Journalese Dictionary, we define “issues” as: “Just about anything can be an issue…Often used by public relations people, and repeated by reporters, to describe a major calamity, trouble, or catastrophe…”

A perfect example was its use in a story about cute solar “flowers” in Somerville, a Boston neighboring city. They are promoted by an electric power company boss, Jim Gordon. Story in the Boston Globe, Aug 10, 2020, reports: “Gordon is best known in the Boston area for his work on Cape Wind, an offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound that eventually failed after getting mired in financial issues and litigation.”

Yeah, right, issues. Gordon’s “work” was being the rich developer of the billion dollar project. The battle over the scam went on for 12 years. The project collapsed when state and federal subsidies dried up. That would mean Gordon would have to use his own money to proceed. Heaven forbid! No rich developer uses own money. Oh, yeah. The Globe loved the project.

File under: Opinion in the guise of news.