Martin Gehr examined the opportunities and risks of figurative language in journalistic texts. When a politician faces a shipwreck and finds themselves in deep water, we are navigating the ocean of metaphors and idioms. These expressions are commonplace in journalistic language, but they are increasingly used thoughtlessly and devoid of meaning, or they come across as stereotypical and weak in their statements. They are particularly sensitive to handle in opinion-based formats like commentary, as the language here should reflect personal influences for the sake of argumentation. However, trivial imagery prevents clear positions. The author analyzed political newspaper commentaries during the state election in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2010.