Farewell, SCOTUS

[Joel S. Berson]

Can we soon expect breaking news from the White House communications
office, saying that it will no longer countenance the use of POTUS,
FLOTUS, and ROTUS?  (The last of these three seen, with the other
two, in the NYTimes just yesterday, although not in all caps.)

Joel

At 5/19/2009 01:49 PM, Pat O'Conner wrote:
>Breaking news from a source at the Associated Press. In an email
>distributed this morning (5/19), AP informed all editorial staff
>members that it will no longer use the familiar keyword SCOTUS in
>the slug lines of its articles about the Supreme Court of the United States.
>
>In relaying the news, which applies to all AP bureaus, a manager
>explained to Washington staffers: "In an effort to be more friendly
>to non-traditional customers, the AP is cutting down on wire jargon,
>even in slugs and editors' notes. So, I am sad to report, SCOTUS is
>dead. Going forward, please use BC-US--Supreme Court as the starting
>point for the stories about the highest court."
>
>I'm told this will undoubtedly mean the end of SCONJ, which some
>considered an apt name for any court forced to sit in Trenton, NJ.
>Could be that the change is driven by search engine protocols.
>Apparently search engines prefer full names, like Supreme Court, to
>acronyms, like SCOTUS.
>
>Patricia T. O'Conner
>
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