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Can you use the word "lynch" in a story?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by BurnsWhenIPee, Jun 3, 2019.

  1. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    If you use lynch in a story in 2019 you will be fired. That's not hard to deduce. Every word has to be chosen carefully nowadays (knock on wood that all reporters recognize the words that will cause outrage; it's really difficult to be a writer nowadays I'd imagine since copy editors are an endangered group if not totally eliminated).
     
  2. mediaguy

    mediaguy Well-Known Member

    Can't use it at all. Find a different word. If you don't get why, there are larger issues.
     
    Fredrick likes this.
  3. Just the facts ma am

    Just the facts ma am Well-Known Member

    Irrespective of whether you will get fired for using it or some idiots will get offended the word has zero inherent racist meaning. In American culture the word is much more strongly associated with cowboy movies and TV than with racial murder in the South. The meaning of a word is determined by it's context. To me it sad that journalists refuse to fight this battle and give in to the PC crowd.

    For example the correct response to the "chink in the armor" brouhaha would have been ESPN laughing in those critics faces and mocking their stupidity. Instead they took the cowardly way out.
     
    justgladtobehere likes this.
  4. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Most words don't have much "inherit" meaning - it's almost always how they're used, who they're used by and what they're used to describe, that effect how they're received. How incredible of a writer can you be if you're ignorant of how society or your audience will receive a word, or if you just choose to ignore this aspect?
     
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    notable PC crowd member

     
    Doc Holliday likes this.
  6. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    You've created a silly and inconsistent character on here.
     
    sgreenwell and BurnsWhenIPee like this.
  7. Just the facts ma am

    Just the facts ma am Well-Known Member

    I'm consistent, just not easily stereotyped.

    Anyway so you can't use chink. Next is slant, slope, yellow.

    You can't use lynch. Next is hang, noose, rope.
     
  8. Twirling Time

    Twirling Time Well-Known Member

    Since we're on the subject of words you cannot use, you absolutely cannot use "niggardly" either. I'd dare some to try, but cruelty isn't in my DNA.
     
  9. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Remember when you used to pretend to be a black guy?

    That was awesome.
     
    Regan MacNeil likes this.
  10. Just the facts ma am

    Just the facts ma am Well-Known Member

    LOL. What does that even mean?
     
  11. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Nah.

    Those are fine.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2019
  12. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    It means, have you not previously identified yourself as a black man on here?

    Have I confused you with someone else?
     
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