From now on, CNNMoney news articles and headlines will simply refer to the sequester (which is a self-imposed, artificial crisis set to make deep cuts into various government programs and services–including the military–unless the Republican Congress acts) as "forced budget cuts." Because, well, that's what they are. Per reporter Annalyn Kurtz's article at CNNMoney:
We've had enough of the Beltway's wacky terms. If you haven't noticed -- and how could you not? -- our lawmakers in D.C. have had a rather annoying obsession lately with using fancy-pants words to dramatize and complicate otherwise simple concepts.
Thankfully, the fiscal cliff headlines have come to an end. The next culprit, though, is "sequestration," and we're putting our foot down.
We're going to steer clear of the term in our articles and headlines. Why do we need such an esoteric word when we could just say "forced budget cuts" instead?
Here's what you need to know: As my colleague Jeanne Sahadi writes, in the end, sequestration is just jargon for automatic, across-the-board cuts in funding. If Congress doesn't act, the budgets of most federal government programs and agencies will shrink, starting March 1.I think this move makes sense both journalistically and practically. After all, we in the political community are always complaining about the lack of engagement among the general population. What we often miss is the fact that certain of our politicians design it to be that way. And since they'd rather Jane Doe and John Doe not realize that what they're actually doing is cutting away their lifeline, well, they'll just mask it with nerd jargon that Jane and John need a dictionary to understand and hope they don't notice.
But CNNMoney says, "enough." Thank you, CNN.
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