NYT avoidance

[Victor]

NYT: "During an interview with a political Web site called City Hall,
Ms. Maloney repeated the caller’s remarks, which included _a slur
sometimes used against black people_, about Senator Gillibrand. ...
According to Ms. Maloney, the caller, a man from Puerto Rico, said that
he was offended by Ms. Gillibrand’s support of English-only policies in
education and that Ms. Gillibrand’s discussion of the issue during one
appearance _was like using the racial slur against a Puerto Rican_."

Contrast this with Newsday and the Daily News:
ND: "Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney apologized Monday for repeating _a
racial slur_ when she quoted another person during an interview. Calling
_the N-word_ disgusting, the Democrat said she was relaying a story as
it was told to her."

NYDN: "Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is preparing to announce her bid for
Senate next week, apologized Monday for using the N-word as she relayed
a conversation to a reporter."

Unlike nearly everyone else who simply resorted to "the N-word", LA
Times blogger Andrew Malcolm made it more interesting, although it took
several paragraphs (and he was trying to make an additional point).

LAT:"There is a word in the English language that we can't use here. No,
it's not the eight-letter barnyard epithet. No, it's none of the
four-letter naughties that might come into your mind if you are a
foul-mouthed, -minded sinner who's going to the four-letter bad place in
the afterlife.

"It's a six-letter racial epithet for African Americans that only
African Americans can use.

"And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is not African American, seems to have
been caught crossing into that forbidden linguistic territory by the
Rev. Al Sharpton, who is African American.

"The six-letter gaffe has its roots in New York Gov.David Paterson, who
is African American, last year not selecting Caroline Kennedy, who isn't
an African American, but instead picking upstate Rep. Kirsten
Gillibrand, who isn't an African American, as the Senate replacement for
Hillary Clinton, who isn't an African America."

VS-)

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