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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. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Yep. There's simply zero upside. Was anyone on Twitter complimenting Hummel for his wordsmithing?

    The last time I can remember reading or hearing that in media was when Kelly Tilghman said "lynch him in a back alley" when joking about what PGA Tour pros would have wanted to do to Tiger Woods. She was suspended. And Golfweek magazine turned that into a cover story with a noose on the cover, which was a beyond-awful editorial decision that cost the editor his job.
     
  2. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Was Fuzzy Zoeller guest editing that issue?
     
  3. Bronco77

    Bronco77 Well-Known Member

    I probably would have changed the wording to something less inflammatory but equally to the point such as "released" or "waived." Beyond the racial connotation, there's no need to use life-or-death terms (although the baseball-crazed populace of St. Louis might disagree).
     
  4. JRoyal

    JRoyal Well-Known Member

    But is it necessary to even bring up images of people killing the players? No. So you don't need a word that works just as well. You need a word that doesn't turn fans into virtual racists and murderers. It's fucking baseball.
     
    Doc Holliday and BurnsWhenIPee like this.
  5. JRoyal

    JRoyal Well-Known Member

    And the turn of phrase was absolutely unnecessary. Here's the full sentence:

    "The sweep, after a victory in the finale of a series in Philadelphia, gives the Cardinals a winning streak of four games on the heels of a disastrous stretch of 18 losses in 24 games when the most agitated fans wanted to lynch at least half the roster."

    This would be just as effective:

    "The sweep, after a victory in the finale of a series in Philadelphia, gives the Cardinals a winning streak of four games on the heels of a disastrous stretch of 18 losses in 24 games that raised questions up and down the roster."
     
  6. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Watching an entire baseball game these days can make you want to kill yourself.
     
    Liut and JRoyal like this.
  7. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Most sports are predicated on violence and dominating the opponent. Hell, half the olympic games developed from skills applicable in warfare -- pole vaulting (jumping over an opponent's wall); javelin; wrestling, etc.

    Could he have used a better word? I guess. But man, people are too sensitive to this shit. Lynching does not have only one connotation. It might have a prevailing connotation in some people's eyes, but not in everyone's. This is the definition from the top Google hit.

    lynch
    /lin(t)SH/
    1. (of a mob) kill (someone), especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial.
      "her father had been lynched for a crime he didn't commit"
      synonyms: hang, hang by the neck;
      execute, put to death, kill, murder;
      informalstring up, do in, bump off, knock off;
      literaryslay;
      raregibbet
      "her father had been lynched for a crime he didn't commit"
    There's nothing inherently racial about it. Maybe writers in the past shouldn't have used the word "lynching" to describe what was just flat out murder.
     
    Liut likes this.
  8. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Please, no suicide references...
     
    Liut likes this.
  9. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Nope. Never use it.

    Send the guys to the minors. Trade them. Don't lynch them.
     
  10. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    this
     
  11. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    Lynching is not necessary, but what you wrote was not the same meaning. Raising questions comes a tad bit before
    deciding you want to get rid of someone.
     
  12. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    It was a figure of speech to begin with.

    "The sweep, after a victory in the finale of a series in Philadelphia, gives the Cardinals a winning streak of four games on the heels of a disastrous stretch of 18 losses in 24 games."

    It doesn't need a qualifier.

    Flourish is better suited for observation, not invention of fans' moods.
     
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