TURN YOUR SPEAKERS ON

Weasel words are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources. Weasel words give the force of authority to a statement without letting the reader decide if the source of the opinion is reliable. If a statement can't stand on its own without weasel words, it lacks neutral point of view; either a source for the statement should be found, or the statement should be removed.


For example, "Montreal is the nicest city in the world," is a biased or normative statement. Application of a weasel word can give the illusion of neutral point of view: "Some people say Montreal is the nicest city in the world."

Although this is an improvement, since it no longer states the opinion as fact, it remains uninformative:

Who says that? You?
When did they say it? now?
How many people think that? Just how many is "some"? "most"??
What kind of people think that? Where are they?
What kind of bias might they have?
Why is this of any significance?
Weasel words don't really give a neutral point of view; they just spread hearsay, or couch personal opinion in vague, indirect syntax. It is better to put a name and a face on an opinion than to assign an opinion to an anonymous source.


Examples
Here are some weasel words that are sometimes found in Wikinews articles:

"Some people say..."
"Some argue..."
"Contrary to many..."
"As opposed to most..."
"Research has shown..."
"...is widely regarded as..."
"...is widely considered to be..."
"...is thought to be..."
"It is believed that..."
"It has been said/suggested/noticed/decided/stated..."
"Some people believe..."
"Some feel that..."
"They say that..."
"Many people say..."
"It may be that..."
"Could it be that..."
"It could be argued that..."
"Critics/experts say that..."
"Some historians argue..."
"Considered by many..."
"Critics contend..."
"Observers say..."
"Fans say..."
"Accusations..."
"Apparently..."
"Allegedly..."
"Arguably..."
"Obviously..."
"Serious scholars/scientists/researchers..."
"Mainstream scholars/scientists/researchers..."
"The (mainstream) scientific community"
"It is claimed..."
"It should be noted that..."
"Correctly (justly, properly, ...) or not, ..."
Anthropomorphisms like "Science says ..." or "Medicine believes ..."
"...is only one side of the story"