Wow, I guess the Leave crowd, numbering some 17.4M, took the whole Rule, Britannia! thing pretty seriously, huh? …and Remains of the Day takes on a whole new meaning – well, it does for some 16.1M British citizens – doesn’t it?

Regardless of which side of the argument you support, the prognostications of doom and gloom being proffered by the talking heads claiming to represent each group do stretch the imagination though…

A brief thought experiment. Two lists, each containing six words or phrases – all of which were extracted from various online news sources, (e.g. Economist, Forbes, Guardian, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.), which have published one, or more, articles about the EU Referendum in the past 24 hours, (since the election results were announced).

My question is this – does one of these lists cause a bit more angst than the other?

absolute turmoil
chaos in the markets
scary
shock
markets plunge
wild swings in the market

vs.

economic disruption
volatile markets
dramatic
unprecedented
markets declined
markets responded vigorously

Yeah, I thought so. While we can endlessly debate the methodology used, (basically scanning similarly-titled articles and merely teasing out the primary theme in a given paragraph), my point is this – words matter. They matter a great deal.

Using precise language when describing what is clearly a fluid – a very fluid – situation is in the writer’s, (and arguably the reader’s), best interest. Purposely stoking fear, anxiety, suspicion and even rage solely for the purpose of capturing – and retaining – the public’s attention is simply reckless.

Prognosticators, pundits, analysts and journalists, stop being reckless with your choice of words!

Those short-sighted bureaucrats deserve a >: >: >: rating.