Subtle but Huge

When I think about my life, one of the words that comes to mind is I am a writer. I know that choosing words is the single most important aspect of good writing. If I choose the word "elephant" in the middle of an essay about giraffes, I have failed as a writer. In the Big Picture, the simple truth is that words matter. Maybe I saw that phrase before. I don't think it's an original phrase from my brain. Sadly, I don't know if I saw it in an online article about writing or if I read it in a book about writing. It's not something I claim as my phrase to describe writing in any shape or form and I don't want anyone to think that I think I created the phrase in my brain first.


I mention the phrase "words matter" because I was just looking at yesterday's headlines from both NBC NEWS and Fox News. Each organization published an article that were released 5 minutes apart. The Fox News article was published at 10:45 AM and the NBC NEWS article was published at 10:50 AM.

There's nothing earth-shattering about these articles as they are both reporting about the press conference President Trump had yesterday. I did notice how words matter in these two headlines.

First, I noticed the word that was chosen after the word "Trump." Fox News used the word "declares" and NBC NEWS used the word "says." Of those two words, which word implies power?

Answer: declares.


Second, I noticed that after 'appears to be standing down' NBC NEWS tells the reader that Trump "vows" new sanctions. In my mind, the word "sanctions" has a negative connotation - a synonym for the word "punishment." So when it comes to something negative, NBC NEWS uses a verb that is stronger than "says" to go along with it. I say that because the word "vows" has a powerful meaning to many people. If you make a vow in a wedding ceremony, you promise. No one says, "The bride and groom say that they will love each other at a wedding." People would say, "The bride and groom vow to love each other at a wedding." Also notice that NBC NEWS tells the reader what Trump's words mean to the people of Iran. The people of Iran will have new sanctions, which as I just said, is a negative. Contrast that with the message from Fox News. Their construction is a little different as they don't use a second verb after the first line. It's implied that Trump "declared" that the missile strikes caused no casualties. Also, Fox News is focused on the positive, which is that there were no casualties. Obviously, when some event happens and no one dies, that's a positive outcome. Finally, Fox News tells the user additional information that directly impacts the American people. Our fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters were not hurt and remain safe.

I just wrote an entire blog post about 25 words with 15 words used in both releases and only 10 unique words in two press releases from two different media companies.

I am a writer. Words matter.