Calling foul on the sport of cussing

Editor's Notes

I promised to take a cursory look today at cussing in the newspaper.

It all started with a story we ran recently about three high school football players. We wanted to write a slice of their life, let them use their own words to describe what they do in their free time. We didn’t want to censor them. We didn’t want to be stodgy.

We let them swear in print.

Before and after we published the story, we discussed among our editing ranks whether to include conversation that contained a four-letter word used by George Carlin. You remember his “Seven Dirty Words” comic monologue and the words he said would infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war?

Those seven words were from 1973, of course, and this is now, when we would argue that the range of acceptable vocabulary has stretched just as the rules of polite society and forbidden speech have blurred.

Shouldn’t we thus embrace the youth with their verbal vulgarity?

Editors who have mentored me for years said no, in no uncertain terms. Not by quoting them verbatim.

And so did readers. One wrote me a letter to say the whole story was tasteless.

“These boys deserve nothing less than a public apology.”

Another said that the newspaper should have taken the high road when quoting them.

“Kids will say things that aren’t always appropriate, but as the adult present, the Press should realize what should and shouldn’t be put in the paper.”

Even if the story had been about an adult, several callers and e-mailers agreed, the crude expressions added nothing. They should have been paraphrased or, better yet, zapped.

Suffice it to say that I was wrong to allow a story to run that had so much potential to offend readers of all sensibilities, from the mother of one of the boys, to the boys’ coach and athletic director, to the superintendent of schools.

After several sit-down discussions, our editorial policy, from this day forward, will be to err on the side of caution when it comes to language. We’re putting a lid on those seven dirty words and other polluters.

That doesn’t mean that we are going to shy away from accurate reporting or edit in euphemisms. We’ll simply weigh the newsworthiness of expletives against concerns about community standards.

And in the future, when reporters raise red flags about the intemperate remarks of their sources, teen or grownup, we’ll remind them of the story of the three young football players — and of our cursory look at cussing that led to a policy about dirty words.

Posted by cmatthews at October 1, 2005 05:03 PM

Hi Cheri,

I am not so sure it was a mistake to run the article - while I understand the feelings of the parents, maybe there wasn't anything else to print from the interview - unfortunately, it didn't sound like the boys had anything intelligent to say. I think that the parents need to talk to their sons about the language they chose to use in an interview, and not blame the Tracy Press for printing it.

Posted by: Karen Robey at October 15, 2005 06:28 PM

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Posted by: dustin chapman at November 24, 2005 10:35 PM