Chicago media critic Robert Feder reports that Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels has issued a list of 119 words and phrases that WGN-AM newspeople are no longer allowed to use on-air.  Feder looks askance at this effort,  calling it insulting and suggesting that Michaels has better things to do with his time.  Feder couldn’t be more wrong.  What job could possibly be more important for the head of a media company than insuring the quality of its content?

Michael’s list of forbidden words is designed to make WGN’s newscasts more conversational and PPM friendly.  Honestly, there isn’t much new here.  Anyone who worked in a Clear Channel talk radio newsroom during the Michaels-Gabe Hobbs era, knows this list by heart. (I certainly do.)

I give Michaels’ list my highest rating: Read It and Heed It.

Thanks to Tom Taylor at Taylor on Radio for the heads-up on this story.