As the Trump administration this week proposes changes to the nation’s tax system, here’s a reminder to journalists and talking heads: When you use the word “reform” without putting it in quotation marks and attributing the phrase to the person or document using the word, then the propagandists win.
The etymology of the word “reform” obviously means to make changes to something. But the Oxford English Dictionary notes that, since 1606, it also has included the meaning that changes would “remove errors, abuses, or other hindrances to proper performance.”
And that’s the problem. Whether it’s “tax reform” or “tort reform” or any other change, the proponents for change use the word “reform” to imply that the changes will be better. The Associated Press style guide’s entry on the word “reform” tells writers to be careful when “deciding whether reform is the appropriate word or whether a more neutral term is better.”
When journalists use the word “reform” without attribution, they tacitly accept the propagandists’ argument that the proposed changes are good. Journalists, who above all else understand the power of words, should know better. Whether the opponents make good arguments or not, objective journalists put their thumbs on the scales when they write “tax reform” outside of quotes because it makes opponents seem opposed to what is good.
It’s already happening: A news.google.com search on the term “tax reform” found 560,000 results today, many more than the 378,000 results for “tax plan.”
A quick look at news coverage shows some offenders: CNBC, CNBC, The Washington Post and Politico, for example. Others, such as FoxNews.com, were inconsistent.
Others are doing it right, such as the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times’ main story on the rollout, which includes the neutral phrase “tax plan” and only used “reform” when quoting a proponent. (Still, an headline on an opinion piece was sucked in, although that may be OK for an opinion story.)
Yes, more cumbersome phrases such as “proposed changes to the nation’s tax laws” or “tax plan” may not be be as friendly in a headline — and certainly don’t work as well as “tax reform” in search-engine optimized headlines. News organizations might want to include “tax reform” as a metatag and keywords to help readers find those stories, but keep it out of the article when not in quotation marks and attributed to a speaker.