MediaWatch: December 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: December 1993
- TV Gun Control Coverage Tilts Its Tone, Talking Heads and Labels to Liberal Side
- NewsBites: Clinton on Quayle, Take 2
- Revolving Door: Democrat Heads PBS
- Media Dive on GOP in New Jersey, Ignore Democrats in Philadelphia
- No Clinton "Sleaze Factor"
- Endangered Property?
- Editor Squashes "Pejorative" Words
- Janet Cooke Award: CBS This Morning's Giselle Fernandez Hails "Castro's Playground;" Tunnels with Nightclubs
Editor Squashes "Pejorative" Words
P.C. Rules the L.A. Times
The Los Angeles Times has jumped in with both feet as it joins the ranks of the politically correct media. Howard Kurtz reported in the November 29 Washington Post that Times Editor Shelby Coffey III issued a new committee-drafted pamphlet, Guidelines on Ethnic, Racial, Sexual, and Other Identification.
The guidelines ask reporters not to use such words as "WASP" ("may be pejorative"), "coed" ("considered derogatory to female college students"), "Dutch treat" ("an offensive reference to sharing expenses") "mailman" ("many women hold this job"), "mankind" ("humanity, human beings and humankind are preferred") and "man-made"("preferred words are artificial, manufactured or synthetic.")
The Times urged that phrases such as "admitted homosexual" or "tidal wave of immigrants" be avoided. In regard to "the New World," the guidelines say: "Beware of this usage when referring to the ancient continent of North America stumbled upon by Christopher Columbus. It ignores 2,000 separate cultures that already existed on the continent."
The guidelines also outlaw "biddy," "bra-burner," "Chinese fire drill," "crazy," "divorcee," "gal," "ghetto," "gypped," "handicapped person," "hick," "hillbilly," "Hispanic," "holy rollers," "Indians," "inner city," "lame," "male nurse," "normal," "powwow," "queer," "welsher" and "white trash." The Times did not forbid references to religious conservatives as "poor, uneducated, and easy to command." But hey, it's only written by news gathering craftpersons for descendants of humans who stumbled upon North America.
