Yesterday we flagged France 24 for calling the then-unsigned US-Saudi nuclear deal a "landmark" — an adjective that files a story under achievements before you've read a word. We assumed that was one newsroom's choice. It wasn't. It was a preview. * The deal got signed, and here's the Thursday morning roll call. BBC News: "US signs landmark nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia." The Guardian: "US signs landmark nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that could pave the way for domestic nuclear enrichment." Al Jazeera: "Saudi Arabia and US agree to landmark nuclear deal for civilian purposes." Four outlets, three owners, three continents — one adjective, spreading through headlines like a yawn through a meeting. * Where does everyone's favourite word come from? Not from the text of the deal, which nobody outside the rooms has fully seen. "Landmark" is how the people selling an agreement describe it. When four independent newsrooms all reach for the seller's adjective on the same morning, that's not four editors having the same epiphany. That's a press release with excellent distribution. * Al Jazeera's version earns the closest read, because it went one step further than the others: "for civilian purposes." That's not a description, that's a verdict — and it's precisely the thing at issue. Whether this deal stays civilian is the entire question, and it's an open one. * Don't take our word for it — take Al Jazeera's. Just yesterday, AJ's own explainer did the homework: enrichment unlocked after a "joint study," US firms building the kingdom's nuclear sector for 30 years, and possibly no IAEA Additional Protocol — the part where inspectors actually get to look. Twenty-four hours later, the same outlet's newsfeed headline stamps the box "civilian purposes" like a customs officer waving through a crate marked FLOWERS. * A small bouquet for the Guardian, which at least dragged the real story into the headline — "could pave the way for domestic nuclear enrichment" — the clause doing the work "landmark" was hired to prevent. It's the only headline of the four that tells you why you might want to keep reading. * Governments get to write their own adjectives; that's what communiqués are for. The press's whole job is to quote them, in quotation marks, and then check. When the marks come off and the seller's word migrates into the outlet's own voice, the newsroom hasn't covered the announcement. It's joined it.