[Ads-l] How the Los Angeles Times deals with obscenity

[Laurence Horn]

Checking the web, it seems like “I’m f—ing scared right now” is an alternative rendering of Minoff’s tweet, along with “I’m [expletive] scared…”, “I’m **** scared…”, “I’m ___ing scared”, and (from Time) “I’m f—king scared…”.  Arguably, unlike “shithole countries”, this is not a case in which the taboo item is necessarily germane to the news story.  Some web stories embed the actual quote with “I’m fucking scared right now” and then gloss it in the text of the article as “I’m f—ing scared right now”, e.g. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article200145234.html

LH


> On Feb 15, 2018, at 12:48 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Freshman Aidan Minoff live-tweeted the shooting from inside the classroom
> where he was hunkered down with others. "My school is being shot up and I
> am locked inside. I'm _…_ scared right now," he wrote.
> 
> My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. I’m _fucking_ scared
> right now. pic.twitter.com/mjiEmPvGNb
> 
> — Aidan Minoff (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018
> 
> www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-florida-school-shooting-20180214-story.html#nt=tertiarynavbar
> 
> -- 
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org