Decry this.

Did you ever hear anyone say, “The mayor decried the councillor’s comments.” Or, “The driver decried to cop who ticketed him.” That’s right, never. Decry is classic journalese, used only by the media. What brings this up are three decry headlines in one Boston Globe issue, Oct. 5, 2021. Here they are, with the first the page one top story:

“Biden decries GOP over vote on debt limit.”
“Disparity in road repair aid is decried,”
“UN decries alleged crimes against humanity in Libya”

Whatever happed to those great headline verbs: Blast, rip, slam, rap , attack, crucify, dis, knock, pan, lash — the list can go on and on. But wishy-washy decry sounds polite, with sympathy for the guy causing the outrage. The third headline is over a real news story: It’s the rare criticism by the UN Human Rights Council of a country that’s an Islamic dictatorship. Indeed, Libya was elected the first chair country of the Human Rights Council when the Council was formed, giving third world dictatorships and their allies control. Libya was then run by the butcher Muammar Gaddafi. Now that was something to decry about. The majority of the UN did nothing. Not even laugh at the world’s big joke of a UN Human Rights Council run by human rights violators.

File under: PC editors at work.