Ian Katz is on the case

Newsnight editor Ian Katz's BBC website report earlier in the week, Nobel winner: Attack on experts 'undermines science', is interesting in its use of language. 

The report pits the views of Michael Gove against Sir Paul Nurse. 

The verbs used to describe Sir Paul's contributions are: 

says, told, said, said, said, said

The verbs used to describe Mr Gove's contributions are: 

says, admitted, said, told , insisted, conceded, added

The use of the word "admitted" has connotations of confession, "insisted" implies an assertion and "conceded" suggests admitting that something's true after having previously denied it. None are necessarily neutral words, value-wise - unlike "says", "said" and "told". 

Michael Gove is in the dock in this report and the language used about him suggests that Ian Katz is acting, to some degree, like a prosecution barrister here, summing up for the jury.