What's the right (expletive) way to do this?

This is something that you see fairly often and there doesn't seem to be a consensus. I think any time someone uses profanity, you should just replace the word with (expletive) as I did in the thread title. I feel like I've seen places do (stuff) for presumably shit or (butt) for presumably ass and a number of other euphemisms.

What do you think?

 

"I (expletive) in the milk of their win," Coach Johnson said after Boogaloo Tech held his team scoring during the final 16:52 of the second half of last night's championship basketball game.

 

Some tight-(expletive) places don't like that approach, because it "encourages" readers to guess at what the offending word was.

Maybe there should be different profanity policies for print and Web versions of stories, since only mature adults read the print offering anymore.

 

Thanks, Papa.

 

(Fudge) off.

 

just say the fucking word in the paper

 

I like the way Moddy does it.

*****

 

I believe Steve Rushin called that "Obscene Hangman."

 

We don't have a specific policy in our shop that I'm aware of, but I believe we do it this way as well. It's one of those things where it's like, "OK, that's the word, keep moving through the story."

 

De nada, though the correct word should've been *scoreless* ... I (expletive) in the milk of my typo.

 

Most places use expletive, our place does, too. But a lot of times, it might make the quote seem even more offensive than it actually is.

To some people, "It was a goddamn foul" is a lot less offensive than "it was a fucking foul."