Archaic relic that I am, NWW does not use gender neutral phrasing. Or B.C.E. / C.E. in the place of B.C. / A.D.
Changing established practices in order to curry favour with political trends is bad policy; tomorrow's new-niks will bury you with the same principle, ensuring that no text will be easily comprehensible a few generations into the future.
Failure to distinguish between something that disagrees with you because it is an evolved artifact, and something that disagrees with you because it is the result of someone's intent to disagree with you, is seriously second rate. It's delusional paranoia, or it's pathetically cliqueish. Marxist conspiracy rubbish is a dress on a pig lamenting that there are no hammers for the left handed.
But - the rules of the game seem to be changing. Rejoice, the establishment is being challenged (OK, it's being ignored). Or, mourn the coming balkanization of language and culture.
Editorially, I don't answer to anybody here. I have no career ambitions to protect, no asses to kiss. Of course, that goes for a lot of other bloggers out there as well, many of whom will disagree with decisions that I make here. You know what? S'okay.
Myself, I regret more that some feel they can't take advantage of that freedom. Pay any price, bear any burden? What are you, nuts?
Makes room for CanWest to join the majors
Kudos to CanWest for calling a terrorist a terrorist . Many, including The Last Amazon , will be happy to hear it. Reuters is among the worst of the major western news services, where I would also place the BBC and the CBC.
Unsurprisingly, Reuters is not happy about the changes CanWest made to Reuters wire stories:
Our editorial policy is that we don't use emotive words when labeling someone," said David A. Schlesinger, Reuters' global managing editor. "Any paper can change copy and do whatever they want. But if a paper wants to change our copy that way, we would be more comfortable if they remove the byline." Mr. Schlesinger said he was concerned that changes like those made at CanWest could lead to "confusion" about what Reuters is reporting and possibly endanger its reporters in volatile areas or situations. "My goal is to protect
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