from Wiki: Weasel words are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources. They give the force of authority to a statement without letting the reader decide whether the source of the opinion is reliable. If a statement can't stand on its own without weasel words, it lacks neutral point of view; either a source for the statement should be found, or the statement should be removed. If a statement can stand without weasel words, they may be undermining its neutrality and the statement may be better off standing without them.
For example, "Houston is the nicest city in the world," is a biased or normative statement. Application of a weasel word can give the illusion of neutral point of view: "Some people say Houston is the nicest city in the world." Although this is an improvement, since it no longer states the opinion as fact, it remains uninformative: Who says that? You? When did they say it? Now? How many people think that? How many is some? How many is most? What kind of people think that? Where are they? What kind of bias might they have? Why is this of any significance? Weasel words don't really give a neutral point of view; they just spread hearsay, or couch personal opinion in vague, indirect syntax. It is better to put a name and a face on an opinion than to assign an opinion to an anonymous source.
