Something Rich and Strange

I subscribe to the U.S. Department of State’s announcements about a wide variety of topics, such as speeches by officials, trade policy issues, and general news (yes, I am a hopeless inside-the-Beltway wonk). The content of the emails ranges from being highly informative about international affairs to more potent than most prescription sleep aids. But whatever the topic, the subject line invariably begins with the word “highlights” followed by a colon and a brief description of the topic at hand (there is usually only one topic highlighted, so why the plural, I’m not sure.) But I digress.

So State’s Bureau of Public Affairs, who produces these missives, describes everything from celebrating International Anticorruption Day (I wonder how this is observed in Afghanistan? Sales of matteresses stuffed with cash?) to a bus crash that killed several Americans as a “highlight.” As in recently “Highlights: Terrorist Attack in Istanbul.”

Now I understand that technically, according to Webster’s dictionary and other such references, the primary use of “highlight” is identifying something of major significance or importance, not making a statement about whether it is qualitatively good or bad. But secondarily, its use can be a synomym for indicating the “best part” of something. What "highlight" means in a particular case is left to the reader to decipher. But, conveying information meaningfully as well as accurately is the province of public affairs practitioners. Thus describing a horrendous event where people are killed and injured as a highlight just sounds, well, wrong and a tad offensive.

My professional recommendation should anyone from State actually read this post? Drop “highlights” altogether. If a topic is newsworthy enough to be the subject of a State Department announcement, it will be recognized as such without needing to be “highlighted.”