What kind of "thing" is contemporary news reporting?

The word "thing" can be used with good effect. See 5/8/08 Keith Olbermann, "The Fuel Tax Thing." However, when used indiscriminately, as had a Los Angeles television reporter while reporting on a fire threatening the ruin of nearly completed condominiums, "things" like using language to actually name a solid object can cause alarm.

As the reporter from local station KTLA channel 5 approached a harried construction worker her microphone at-the-ready, the fire was still a concern. Lives could have been imperiled. Firemen were seen scurrying in the background. What was the point of the reporter thrusting herself directly into the activity? We seem to have an explanation by her choice of words given the gravity of the situation.

Reporter to construction worker: "Did you smell the security thing? She said, looking at the construction worker stopped from his progress, not fully understanding, What thing? What smell? He must have thought.

The reporter seemed to be merely searching for "action images" and found one, a man, presumably engaged in an important action. The reporter stopped the man, pushed the microphone in his unlucky face and used the word "thing" to describe some sort of olfactory security mechanism. We are used to calling the auditory variety fire alarms. How difficult is it to say, "fire alarm," or "security alarm?" whether it be the smell or sound variety?

"Security thing"? Reporters should be communicating concrete information to the public by both questions and descriptions. "Thing" says very little. Use a noun which squarely names that which is spoken of. Provide a precise mental picture, please! Simply because television mostly concerns visual images, when language is used, we should expect the same clarity a camera may provide.

We might say the reporter presented a nuisance to the firefighter, and certainly to her audience.


Thing: n. object, fact; idea. (Concise Oxford Dictionary). A "thing" can name any object, fact, or idea in the abstract. When it counts, use the concrete name.