NASCAR and linguistic hygiene

[Harold Schiffman]

New rules on bad language:

NASCAR apparently issued a new policy in regard to conduct and
language used by drivers during interviews, especially nationally
televised interviews.

Some drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., have been fined and
penalized, some would say rather severely, by NASCAR for using
inappropriate words after winning races and during live TV interviews.
In Earnhardt Jr.'s case, someone asked him how his success at
Talladega Superspeedway compares to his dad's accomplishments.
Earnhardt Jr. said "It don't mean shit." To be honest, Earnhardt Jr.
was just telling the truth, but it cost him points in the standings
and a hefty fine. Earnhardt Jr. was asked during media day at Daytona
International Speedway earlier this week if he thought the new rules
would take some of the anxiety off interviews.

"No, because I don't believe them," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the
No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I don't think anybody
does. What does that mean? Tell me? Are we supposed to walk the line
and see where we step over it? Are we going to get fines when we go
too far? What is it that they are saying?" Earnhardt Jr. said the new
rules were made more for the media than for the drivers and teams.

"I think honestly they are playing to you guys, they are not talking
to the drivers, they are playing y'all," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think
it is basically they are trying to appear to be looser, when the
message has not been relayed to the drivers as to what has been
changed, it is just a press release went out to the press that said
'Hey, we are going to do this, how about that? You guys like that,
right?' Really, what have they told us? I don't know what that means?
What does that mean?"

With or without the rules, Earnhardt Jr. said he learned his lesson
from the incident at Talladega a couple years ago.
"That was just a little card game between you two; it has really
nothing to do with the drivers," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I don't feel
like I have been holding back. There are words that I don't use, that
I shouldn't use on national television. For me, I get to be the same
because I don't feel like I have had to reserve myself too much."

http://www.insidesocal.com/haddock/archives/2008/02/new_rules_on_ba.html

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