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Monday, May 01, 2006
Seares: ‘Buang’
By Pachico A. Seares
News Sense
HOW many cuss words do newspapers remove from news sources’ statements?
A lot. What is left, if at all, is what polite society allows and what gives some color to the news quote.
If the suspected bad word is not in the paper’s style list, editors decide its fate.
Usage and public acceptance matter. “Shit” may get in if important to the story but the “f” word is still taboo.
Who said the word can be crucial. A bishop or President uttering an expletive may see it published.
Stories are filtered because space is scarce, reader’s time limited, and audience sensibility sacred.
What is fit.
Promise of media to report “as it sees it” is just what it says. What it sees unfit is not printed, or, when it is TV, lands on cutting floor or is “bleeped” out.
ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol did that more than once in a story Thursday: about ex-senator Sonny Osmeña suggesting insanity if cousin Mayor Tomas Osmeña ran for the Senate. Let him run instead to the basement (the loonie bin) of Makati Medical Center, Sonny said.
The “buang” part was heard, but there were other obscene words drowned out in newscasts and deleted in newspapers.
In the unprintables category are those in bad taste or patently libelous. When public persons slander each other though, the insults at times manage to stay —
Tomas: Sonny cannot win even in his own precinct.
Sonny: I don’t want to inherit Tomas’ madness.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 1, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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