News that floored us?

Reader question:

Please explain this headline: This Week’s News That Floored Us.

My comments:

Shockers or shocking stories of this passing week, in other words.

“News that floored us” refer to stories that were so shocking and stunning that they practically FLOORed us, i.e. knocked us all down to the floor.

Figuratively speaking.

Here, news “that floored us” is likened to the boxer’s fist that lands on the head of an opponent and knocks him down – down to the floor.

In boxing, the knock-down punch usually catches the opponent unawares – otherwise he or she is able to use their hand or arm to shield their head from the punch to lessen the blow. The opponent does not see it coming and is therefore knocked down – and, possibly, out.

Out for good, that is.

Game over.

In our example, news “that floored us” serves like the powerful knock-down punch that comes out of the blue. It catches us unawares, surprising us, shocking us, stunning us, etc. and so forth.

And that, as they say, it that.

No more ado, let’s read a few media examples in which people are FLOORED by something shocking and hard hitting (just as the knock-down punch is shocking and hard hitting):

1. CNN’s Dana Bash and Jim Sciutto were floored over Donald Trump’s choice of a nickname for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with Bash declaring she needed to “stop for a beat” after reading the former president’s Truth Social post.

Bash read multiple Truth Social posts from Trump on Friday and during a discussion with Sciutto about a possible ban on TikTok in the United States, she read a Trump post addressing that very topic.

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” Trump posted on Thursday.

“I just need to stop for a beat,” Bash said after reading the post. “Zuckerschmuck? I mean…that’s pretty outrageous.”

“It’s 100% outrageous and on a number of levels,” Sciutto said.

“Never mind the substance. I’m just talking about that term,” Bash added.

Sciutto knocked Trump for opposing a TikTok ban despite a ban on the social media app being floated by him when he was in the White House.

“The use of the term, it’s offensive, and the argument. This is President Trump, who as commander-in-chief said this was a threat against our country. He has identified China as a threat to the U.S., but now suddenly he’s turned that around and said, ‘Actually, I’m fine with TikTok’?” Sciutto said. “It’s a reminder that Trump’s foreign policy is somewhat volatile. We lived through that four years ago, well his policy in general, and here’s another example.”

- CNN Anchors Floored By Trump’s ‘100% Outrageous’ Nickname for Zuckerberg: ‘I Just Need To Stop for a Beat’, MediaITE.com, March 8, 2024.

2. Sean Ono Lennon was just five years old when his father John Lennon was murdered.

He has now opened up about how it felt to hear previously unheard recordings of his late dad during the production of new Kevin Macdonald documentary One To One: John & Yoko.

“I was completely floored,” Sean told Mojo of listening to the box of tapes of conversations between John and drummer Jim Keltner, Allen Klein and MC5 manager John Sinclair that was only recently discovered.

“I think maybe not everyone realises how special it is for me to hear my dad talking or to see him.

“I grew up with a set number of images and audio clips that everyone’s familiar with. So to come across things that I’ve never seen or heard is really deep for me, because it’s almost like getting more time with my dad.”

“My early childhood was very chaotic,” Sean said. “It was a very strange time. It felt like it was on the heels of this chaos that they had been going through in the early ’70s.”

- John Lennon’s son Sean was “completely floored” hearing his dad’s voice in new clips, GoldRadio.com, March 19, 2025.

3. Taylor Swift has had enough.

The Daily Mail has learned that the superstar singer was left devastated on Friday when she was subpoenaed as a witness in the case between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.

Despite putting on a brave face in Philadelphia this weekend – reportedly joining her boyfriend Travis Kelce and their respective moms for a Mother's Day lunch – it is understood that Swift, 35, has been “completely floored” by the legal escalation and is now “very upset”.

And not least because she feels betrayed and “exploited” by her longtime friend, Lively.

Up until this year, Swift counted Lively, 37, among her closest confidantes. They live just a stone’s throw away from each other in New York’s trendy Tribeca neighborhood, and Swift is godmother to Lively’s three daughters.

But things soured in December when Lively sued Baldoni, her co-star and director in the It Ends With Us movie adaptation of the popular Colleen Hoover novel.

Lively’s sprawling complaint accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, as well as coordinating a smear campaign against her.

Then, when Baldoni countersued in January, accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, of defamation, Swift was dragged into the mix.

Contained in Baldoni’s filing were screenshots of text messages and emails that named Swift. One particularly uncomfortable exchange allegedly shows Lively referring to herself as Khaleesi – a character in Games of Thrones – and to Swift as one of her “dragons”.

Baldoni also claimed that Swift was present at a pivotal meeting about the movie, held by Lively and Reynolds at their New York penthouse. For her part, a source close to Swift has said she simply arrived to find the meeting underway and had no involvement.

The whole saga reportedly left Swift feeling “used” by Lively, and she subsequently took a “step back” from their relationship.

- Taylor Swift believes Blake Lively ‘exploited’ her: Heartbroken singer finally lays bare former bestie’s betrayal and the move that’s left her ‘completely floored’, DailyMail.co.uk, May 12, 2025.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）