Bending toward cliché

I'm not sure who lit the match. But suddenly, a lot of web headlines have become pregnant with "bend" or "bending." As in: "The arc of Obama's policies bend toward confusion." Or "Is Huntsman bending toward sanity?" Or "Unemployment: Bending the trend." Or today's headline on TPM (the trigger for my post): "Reality Bending Toward Parody." Evidently, a new cliché has been quietly born. They of course are all variations on Dr. King's expression: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Imitation may well be the highest form of flattery, as another shopworn cliché goes. But the long arc of lazy writing in the meme-filled websphere inherently bends towards cliché. (What? You saw that one coming a mile away? Okay, fine -- guilty. But try, um, "walking a mile in my shoes.")