Faint Praise Watch

Stephen Glover on the press, a phrase that feels as if the rules of grammar require it to have "as if anyone gives a fuck" appended to it.

And yet, although [the new Berliner Observer] has spirited columnists such as Nick Cohen, and well-informed ones such as Andrew Rawnsley, one looks in vain to its heart for that old voice of principle and conviction, as well as intellectual distinction.

I am currently looking up "spirited" in the Dictionary of English Euphemism