Baby Steps: A *positive* response from local media to my rant last week

[Richardo]

Background: Sent this e-mail last week to my local (Houston) NPR station:

I was listening this morning to the 7:30 local news break when I heard a reference to "Democrat lawmakers" in one of the stories - it might have been the one about Rep. DeLay resisting a subpoena to testify in the Texas redistricting matter.

I am not sure what the KUHF style sheet says about the usage for the names of the political parties, but historically, the prevailing usage has "Democrat" as the noun and "Democratic" as the adjective.

The use of "Democrat" as an adjective is a recent development identified with right-wing media such as Fox News and AM talk radio, and some Republican public officials who take their cues from Roger Ailes and Karl Rove. I strongly object this usage, especially on publicly-subsidized media such as KUHF.

I, and the listening public who support NPR and KUHF, expect and deserve public radio that maintains strict objectivity in its news coverage. Please leave the overt bias to the masters on the AM dial and continue your largely even-handed coverage of the news.

Thank you,

Rich(ardo)


Over the weekend, got this response directly from the reporter. A tad disingenuous, perhaps, but I think I scored a hit:

Dear Mr. (Richardo):

Please accept my sincere apologies for this misstep in the way I chose to word something in the story you're talking about it. I was rewriting a story off the AP wire, and I thought I was using the correct word to identify the plaintiffs in the lawsuits.

As someone who strives for correct grammar in all my stories, I chose the noun form over the adjective form because I don't like using adjectives as nouns. It's like using verbs as nouns -- an equally noxious grammatical trend these days. In complete honesty, it never occurred to me that anyone would construe it as a lapse in objectivity.

I don't watch political TV shows, and I haven't listened to a radio talk show in a very long time, so I must plead ignorance of the way you say some people are now using this word. It appears to be another example of politicians co-opting a perfectly respectable word for their own agenda, and, to my great embarrassment, I have to say I was unaware of it.

I take more than a little pride in being an objective writer, editor and reporter, and I appreciate you calling this to my attention. I really do. Please be assured it won't happen again.

(Reporter)
KUHF News

[GOPisEvil]

1. Wow - that's a good thing!

He/She sounds like he/she might be one of us. ;-)

[Richardo]

3. I'm not sure how this guy could NOT be aware of the "Democrat" usage

by the RW hate-mongers, but I'll give him a pass since he seems to be sincere in his mea culpa.

BTW: How did the post-T'giving meetup go? Slinkerwink and Velma D were down, no?

[GOPisEvil]

5. Ms. Wink was not there.

She has been duly reprimanded. Her excuse, while flimsy, was accepted. Everybody gets a second chance. After that, :spank:

VelmaD made the trip down. We had a good time, but a smaller turnout than was expected. The food was good, as was the company.

[salin]

11. I am a democrat

and wasn't aware of the use as an adjective, and didn't realize it set off a huge negative response until I came to DU a couple of years ago. In my mind, it would be possible for the reporter to really not be aware of the controversy around the use/form of the word.

[hlthe2b]

2. Does his explanation make ANY sense to you?

He states: "I chose the noun form over the adjective form because I don't like using adjectives as nouns." I don't have the context, so I don't know, but this doesn't make sense to me.


Actually, I guess I do see what he's referring to (on edit).

At least he responded. BTW, I have had DUers make this mistake and become VERY VERY defensive when I tried to point out why it was problemmatic. So, like a lie, that if repeated enough is not questioned, so too is the abuse of the noun form "Democrat" when "Democratic" is correct. Thus, it is imperative to keep calling journalists and others on this.

[Richardo]

6. That one puzzled me, too - I put it down as tap-dancing...

...combined with back-pedaling. :D

As I said to GOPisEvil above, the overall response was what I was looking for so I'm giving him a pass on his various rationalizations.

[arcane1]

4. sweet

I wonder if he uses "Republic Party", in keeping with his adjectives-as-nouns avoidance policy?

:shrug:

[Richardo]

7. New forum *kick*

:kick:

[TacticalPeek]

8. Attaboy, Richardo.

This struggle with the misnomerizers must be waged until they give it up.

The doubters (or curious) can be referred to this pertinent info at democrats.org:


"Thomas Jefferson founded the Democratic Party in 1792 as a congressional caucus to fight for the Bill of Rights and against the elitist Federalist Party. In 1798, the "party of the common man" was officially named the Democratic-Republican Party and in 1800 elected Jefferson as the first Democratic President of the United States. Jefferson served two distinguished terms and was followed by James Madison in 1808. Madison strengthened America's armed forces — helping reaffirm American independence by defeating the British in the War of 1812. James Monroe was elected president in 1816 and led the nation through a time commonly known as "The Era of Good Feeling" in which Democratic-Republicans served with little opposition.

The election of John Quincy Adams in 1824 was highly contested and led to a four-way split among Democratic-Republicans. A result of the split was the emergence of Andrew Jackson as a national leader. The war hero, generally considered — along with Jefferson — one of the founding fathers of the Democratic Party, organized his supporters to a degree unprecedented in American history. The Jacksonian Democrats created the national convention process, the party platform, and reunified the Democratic Party with Jackson's victories in 1828 and 1832. The Party held its first National Convention in 1832 and nominated President Jackson for his second term. In 1844, the National Convention simplified the Party's name to the Democratic Party.

In 1848, the National Convention established the Democratic National Committee, now the longest running political organization in the world. The Convention charged the DNC with the responsibility of promoting "the Democratic cause" between the conventions and preparing for the next convention."

http://www.democrats.org/about/history.html

[nannygoat]

9. Way to go, Rich(ardo)!

At least you put him on notice, and he will probably think twice about pulling that again (no matter what his agenda).

[msmcghee]

10. Hard to believe that anyone . .

. . in the news business would not be aware of the RW co-option of that term.

How could he be that disconnected from current news and still be qualified for a job in the business?

Good letter.

[Name removed]

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