Word Wars
(CBS/AP)
There are three dashed words in that quote, but one in particular has forced media outlets covering the story to make some hard choices. As the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein reports, some outlets, like USA Today and The Chicago Sun-Times, have chosen to print the slur in full. Many others (including Greenstein's Tribune), however, have tiptoed around it. Editor and Publisher, for example, printed a story about the incident and did not use the word, opting instead for "a slur against homosexuals." That prompted one reader to write, "The 'slur' couldn't have been the 'f' word, could it? Typical gutless journalism. Once again, your religion of multiculturalism prevents you from providing the public…with reliable, hard-hitting information."
I can think of two reasons not to print the word. The first is in order to avoid needless offense. Many news outlets don't print what has come to be known as "the n-word," the six-letter epitaph for African-Americans, largely because it is considered culturally insensitive to do so. These issues are rarely clear cut – it's not uncommon to hear the n-word used within the black community itself, for example – but the default position seems to be that if you can get the meaning across without using a word that could offend people, you should do so.
The other reason is simple good manners. Many people expect their news outlets to maintain a level of civility they would expect from, say, the man from whom they buy their morning coffee, and that means that they avoid running offensive slurs. If one can use a phrase that gets the point across without employing language that doesn't make a publication unsuitable for children, why wouldn't you?
On the other hand, language has power, and that power can be diluted by dashes and euphemisms. Can you tell what Guillen said from the dash filled-version of the quote I provided in the first paragraph? Probably. You also likely know what E&P means when it refers to "a slur against homosexuals." But is something lost in translation? Don't you get something from seeing the words unadorned that’s missing when you get the watered-down version?
