Was The Associated Press’ Transcription Of Obama’s CBC Speech “Racist?”

[The Northerner]

President Obama’s speech this Saturday night was controversial for more than just his call for African Americans to “stop complaining.”

It has become even more of a hot topic for how the Associated Press spelled “complaining” in the headline of the story.

The AP wrote “complainin” with a dropped g. Now, the debate amongst many is was the AP’s dropped g racist?

On MSNBC, the African-American author Karen Hunter complained the news service transcribed Obama’s speech without cleaning it up as other outlets did–specifically including the “dropped g’s.”

Read more: http://newsone.com/nation/newsonestaff2/obama-cbc-speech-ap-racist/

[DesertFlower]

1. yes. there was no need to drop the "g".

[GSLevel9]

2. Disagree

You can't change the text of a speech. If someone says "ain't" the transcriber should not replace it with "am not".
"gonna" is not going. "doin" is not doing.
Presidential transcripts from AP have historically shown pauses, stutters and grunts lol. Calling this racist is insane.

[emulatorloo]

3. Watch the video. Compare with transcript.

[FrodosPet]

8. Is the point of a transcript to be accurate?

Or is it to transcribe what the transcriber thinks he meant to say, or should have said?

Here is an excerpt of the speech containing the "offending" words:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MiniRtist#p/u/8/49QNGE4EwPU

He clearly said "complainin" and "grumblin"

I often speak like that as well, so I don't see the BFD about dropping a "G", or about an organization (AP) which should be dedicated to accuracy accurately transcribing it.

If the racist baggers are going to have fits about the black president sounding "black", well we know they are going to have fits about something. Why should it mean anything to anyone else?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. Perhaps the most distressing part is

amid all the debate over the transcript no one is paying attention to the substance of the speech.

It could have been and awesome speech or the worst speech ever in the history of speeches but all anyone is focusing on is whether or not it is racist to transliterate a dialect.

If AP went around transliterating Rick Perry's Texas "Y'all needn't" I wouldn't care nearly as much as I would about the fact that the rest of the sentence contained the words, "worry about the poor; they'll die off soon enough."


just sayin'

[HappyMe]

7. That's it.

Pick apart tiny, ridiculous details. Don't even consider the content. That's the way to go! :sarcasm:



It was an awesome speech, imo.

[Brickbat]

5. It goes against AP's own style guide, which calls for dialect only when its use is compelling.

Which, in this crabby editor's opinion, it was not.

But then, AP is notorious for not following its own guide.

[AngryAmish]

6. AP is the most racist organization in America.

[GeorgeGist]

9. In the headline it was intended to belittle Obama and the audience.

In the speech it was intended to belittle the audience.