When the clock is ticking and developments on breaking stories come over the wires fast and furious, a well-placed cliché is a tried and true way of delivering up-to-the-minute information for readers young and old.

Well, maybe not.

Unfortunately, clichés are lazy, uncreative and annoying to both readers and journalists alike, who cringe when they appear in print, on the Web or during a radio or TV broadcast.

Still, clichés refuse to go away and take on a life of their own. Worse, their continued usage can oversimplify a complex issue, lessen the impact of an important story and in some cases, distort the truth.

Clichés even turn up in the work of great writers, broadcasters and columnists from time to time; not even the editors and writers at CTV.ca are immune to their time-saving charms.

So, as part of a New Year's resolution to crusade against trite and untrue phrases, here's a rundown of some clichés that burrowed their way into the year's biggest stories and lingered like a bad hangover.

Too many 'gates,' not enough answers

Back in February, we had NAFTA-gate: a confusing tale which centred on allegations that Ian Brodie, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's then-chief of staff, allegedly leaked information to the media about Barack Obama's opaque views on NAFTA.

Some commentators said the leak may have cost Obama the Ohio primary, but in the end, he still sailed to victory during November's presidential election.

A few months later, Troopergate surfaced during the U.S. election and effectively stained Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's wholesome, "hockey mom" image. Essentially, Palin had allegedly used her gubernatorial powers to axe a public safety official who wouldn't fire an Alaska State Trooper who had divorced Palin's sister. The state personnel board later concluded in a report that Palin violated no ethics laws when she fired her public safety commissioner.

Anyway, the partisan battle led to a tangled web of legalese that would confound Matlock. The Wikipedia entry alone has 15,000 words and could soon challenge "Moby Dick" in terms of length.

Back in Canada, the Tories launched an attack website during the federal election which featured a puffin defecating on the Liberal's Stephane Dion. Predictably, the website ruffled, um, a few Grit feathers and reporters dubbed the ensuing political melee "Puffingate."

By contrast, Watergate shook the foundations of American democracy and toppled the leader of the free world.

Even more aggravating is that "Troopergate" has already been used twice before in U.S. politics: first in a Bill Clinton-related scandal in the early 90s, and again in 2007 in regards to Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor.

Can we move on from "gate" please? The usage itself is a journalism scandal: gategate.

In 2009, let's hope Blagogate, bailoutgate, Averygate and Iggygate don't become political buzzwords.

'The bailout won't end tough economic times'

By now, it would seem that many reporters have a single-keystroke shortcut for the misleading and overused term "bailout."

Initially, we had the $700 billion Wall Street "bailout," and as 2008 ends, reporters and public policy people have again pulled out the term in relation to the Detroit automakers.

Not only is the term trite, but it's also slightly misleading: the automakers are looking for short-term financing which will be used for restructuring. Provided they stay in business, the car companies will have to pay the money back, just like Chrysler did after Washington lent them funding in 1980.

By comparison, a "bailout" is something which parents extend to errant children who rack up credit card debt.

If there was one news story that will define 2008, it was the recession: jobs lost, savings eliminated, financial systems ruined. While the subject matter is serious stuff, some of the news reports have been laughable.

Among the worst is the now-overused phrase "tough economic times" and its many derivatives, which have been bludgeoned to death by reporters, TV anchors and politicos.

Stephane Dion dropped the phrase in his ill-focused and ill-timed address to the nation in early December, when he said: "We believe that in these tough economic times, the government has a role to play."

Sadly, his successor Michael Ignatieff - the "bionic Liberal" and a celebrated author -succumbed to a similarly banal bromide during a November speech when he pledged to "offer the leadership we need in tough times."

Ignatieff's ostensible coalition partners in the NDP were also guilty of wearing out their "kitchen table" metaphor, which intended to relate to regular Canadian families. In fact, Leader Jack Layton used it in nearly every speech during the fall election campaign

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is also prone to word abuse, including his old standby, "let me be very clear."

He's used it several times this year and even used it back in 2004 to deny allegations that he would change Canada's abortion laws.

More recently, Harper used it during the centrepiece of his televised address to the nation in early December: "Let me be very clear, Canada's government cannot enter into a power-sharing coalition with a separatist party at a time of global economic instability."

Okay, Stephen, we believe you now.

But the award for the most overused cliché of the year goes to "Main Street," a colloquialism that has little meaning for anyone under the age of 75 and sounds like it was pulled from the phrasebook of Rich Uncle Pennybags or Scrooge McDuck.

The term also distorts and oversimplifies the financial crisis by pitting the greedy financiers (Wall Street) against hard-working families (Main Street).

'Moving forward' to 2009

The English language is rich with variety, synonyms and colourful modifiers, but once a word is popularized in the public realm, it can be repeatedly overused by speech writers, journalists and politicians.

In recent years, terms like robust, sustainable and stakeholder have been employed so frequently they've nearly lost their meaning.

Eventually, however, terms run their course and they are simply tossed into the historical garbage bin. (Remember when the David Frum-coined "axis of evil" was an omnipresent force in the political lexicon?)

Next year, one cliché that will be inescapable is the already-tired "moving forward" and its equally-irritating sister phrase "going forward." Both aim to imply a sense of progression and optimism, but both are simply too vague and vapid to deliver any real punch.

Still, clichés are great to poke fun at, and at the end of the day, he who laughs last, laughs loudest.