One of my pet peeves is the phrase "alleged suspect", as in "here we see the alleged suspect appearing in court", as if there were some uncertainty as to whether or not a person arrested and appearing in court were indeed suspected o a crime.
IIRC, back in the 60s there were a bunch of convictions overturned by appeals courts because pretrial news reporting called un-convicted suspects "murderers" or "thieves" or
(whatever). Thus "alleged" came into use, and I have no problem with calling an untried suspect "alleged" or "accused".
The two things I've noticed the MSM doing which I think is sloppy or dishonest are:
* Calling a convicted
(whatever) "alleged" or "accused"; if the MSM feel an adjective is needed, the accurate adjective is "convicted";
* Using "alleged" in describing a crime that clearly has happened.
Hello! The video of this crime has been released! Don't use an adjective that suggests the victim is lying! Call it what it was!