The Associated Press Guide to News Writing, 4th Edition by Peterson's

Author:Peterson's [Peterson's]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780768943733
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Peterson's
Published: 2019-11-11T21:00:00+00:00

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Profanity, vulgarity and obscenity present another kind of problem. Society has become vastly more permissive toward them in most forms of print, films and theater. Newspapers increasingly struggle to account for coarse language in the corridors of power. The challenge is representing the news accurately without letting specific words derail a story over questions of taste, which is by nature subjective. The limits of the acceptable vary from outlet to outlet.

It’s good advice—and AP policy—to avoid casual profanity and vulgarisms. Many swear words and expletives are so routine at certain levels of conversation in many groups that they’re like other verbal fillers that can simply be dropped from a direct quote. When that seems awkward, paraphrase.

The practical test on admitting expletives is whether they are essential to the story. They seldom are. A celebrated exception 1979 was Jimmy Carter’s unpresidential language referring to Sen. Edward Kennedy in promising to “whip his ass.” Even so, some papers fig-leafed the noun with dashes or asterisks.

Since Carter’s day, reticence toward “ass-kicking” in high places has diminished. George Bush has been quoted to that effect at least twice, first as vice president and then as president.

The mild profanity in the following example is also indispensable in giving the earthy flavor of a tough lady who had kept federal inspectors off her coal mine at gunpoint:

When her cousin tried to fetch her she leveled a pistol at him and told him to get lost. A masher got fresh once while she was waiting tables and she scalded him with coffee. Her refusal of favors to another man included smashing his windshield with a tire iron. Don’t cross Violet Smith.

“Hell, kid, them feds have never scared me.

“One time when I was running a little grocery in Durango, an Internal Revenue agent came in and said I haven’t paid my taxes. I had. I flattened the S.O.B. with my fist and kicked his rear end out of the door.”

Violet Smith, incidentally, does not abbreviate S.O.B.

Ultimately the question is not about the specific words, but whether you can tell the story more effectively using different ones. The point of news writing is to transmit information. If four-letter words detract from that in some way, it’s best to find ways around them.

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