The Plain English Campaign, struggling hopelessly against obfuscatory cant and cliched language, has released its nominees of the most irritating phrases in general use. #1 is "at the end of the day", #4 is "with all due respect", and there is some good company in the rest of the list:
The odd thing is I noticed most writeups of this story slip an ironic cliche into their headline reportage. Examples include the Toronto Star ("our two cents' worth"), the Charlotte Observer ("It's not rocket science: Good writers must, like, avoid cliches like the plague"), the Chicago Sun Times ("think about it"), Megastar ("We'll literally be so not using any of those - 24/7"), and Plastic ("At The End Of The Day, You're Getting On My Last Nerve").
Of course, most of these articles are just slightly abridged transcriptions of the Plain English press release -- a journalistic cliche if ever there was one. The press release, though, sets the standard by titling itself "At the end of the day... we're fed up with cliches."