On Sunday, Kristen Welker of Meet The Press offered a throwaway line while introducing one of the show’s guests, former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate Nikki Haley:

Haley is now dialing back expectations… Haley also weighing in on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments over Mr. [Donald] Trump’s claim that he’s immune from criminal prosecution for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Colleagues went bananas, pitchforking poor Welker for including the pro forma newsism “allegedly.” The inimitable Aaron Rupar protested that Trump didn’t “allegedly” try to overturn the 2020 election, “He really tried to do that. We lived through it!” Dash Dubrovsky of the Gen Z Perspective Newsletter complained, “Why is Kristen Welker whitewashing Trump’s crimes?” White House Deputy communications director Herbie Ziskend (imagine Louis C.K.’s “whiny house guest” voice here) simply wrote, “‘Allegedly.’ Please do better, folks”:

Organized Crime: The U... Thomas J. DiLorenzo Best Price: $11.82 Buy New $10.79 (as of 06:00 UTC - Details) Welker was clear, saying “criminal prosecution for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election,” a sentence obviously referring to Trump’s indictment by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith. Every journalist is taught is to be careful with accusations of crime, because it is (or was) an automatic lawsuit if you called a not-convicted person guilty of a serious offense. One of my first editors, an elderly gent who’d put in about 400 years reviewing wire copy at UPI, told me early that “you write allegedly even if there’s video and the guy tattoed ‘I did it’ on his forehead.” They drilled this into us in the young-and-stupid phase as a way to save money on defamation counsel later.

There’s been a quiet movement in the “moral clarity” era to do away with “allegedly,” a bit of an industry in-joke (Hologram Michael Jackson shouting “Allegedly! That’s ignorant!” on South Park captured chuckles the term occasionally inspired). The problem is “allegedly” before trial is always a) more accurate b) protects the institution from liability, and c) pays respect to the presumption of innocence. It’s also a protective mechanism, reminding journalists that no matter how certain things look from one angle, they might turn out different. We could have used more “allegedlys” before we went into Iraq. But Welker is being ripped as “undercover MAGA” for doing journalism 101. Is it any surprise the business is falling apart?

This originally appeared on Racket News.