A term much used by the news people that I find interesting is "shot to death". To me, that seems to imply that a highly skilled marksman with a good understanding of anatomy should be able to shoot a dead person to life.
Other abuses that annoy or amuse me:
'Cirrhosis (never could spell that) of the liver.' Since that C word means inflamed liver, what other organ would it involve?
'5 AM in the morning.' Is there anyplace in the world where 5 AM is not in the morning?
'Tuna fish.' Is there any kind of tuna that is not a fish? Maybe a piano tuna?
'You know', especially when inserted after every fifth word. If I know, why are you telling me about it?
The local radio and TV news people are developing the annoying habbit of inserting 'uh' where it doesn't belong. "The dog was running loose in the uhstreet when it was hit by the uhcar."
"Cop talk" is really annoying to me. Don't they know that there are other past tense verbs besides 'did'? Why not say "I went around back to see if ol' Cletus was in his shed when I saw...", instead of "I did proceed in a southwesterly direction to the rear of the structure in search of the suspect and I did observe..."
