Patricia Petersen of Minnetonka was aghast at the March 30 “Violet Days” comic strip in Free Time that included the phrase “super-pricks.”
Referring to shopping at the neighborhood hardware store, artist/writer Chris Monroe’s character said, “They had a really cool toy and gift department and the workers were not super-pricks like at the pharmacy.”
Petersen said if “your child used those words at the dinner table would you not apply discipline?”
One of Webster’s definitions for “prick” is “vulgar slang … a person, esp. a man, regarded as contemptible, obnoxious.” Vulgarism is defined as “indecent or obscene.”
The Star Tribune policy on obscenity and profanity says:
“An obscene word or phrase, or a profanity or blasphemy such as God or Jesus Christ may be used only in a direct quote, and only if essential to the story: that is, if the reader would miss a major part of the flavor or meaning if the word or phrase were left out.”
A contrite Monroe told me, “When I started … I was showed an example [of language I could not use]. I’ve tried not to cross that line.”
Comment: The policy on use of scurrilous language is rarely violated. That doesn’t make this departure any less offensive.
‘That crowd!’
Ernest Kanning took umbrage at a sentence in last Sunday’s “CD review” about “Magnificat,” a collection of ecclesiastical music:
“True, these liturgical works — by John Tavener, Claudio Monteverdi, Josquin Desprez and others — spotlight God, the Virgin Mary and that crowd.”
Kanning called the use of “that crowd” insulting.
Comment: It had the disparaging connotation of a slur. Where was the copy editor when readers needed one?
Kingfield?
Harvey Winje says when there’s a crime in his Phillips neighborhood the location is underscored, “But when another neighborhood has a serious crime its name is buried.”
Winje noted last Sunday’s two-column headline, “Man discovered dead in alley in Minneapolis’ Phillips neighborhood.” The first paragraph identified the neighborhood.
But on Tuesday after police killed a man who pointed a shotgun at them the headline did not mention where it occurred, and identification of the Kingfield neighborhood didn’t come until the 20th paragraph.
Comment: Phillips has had a high profile in the news for sociological reasons; Kingfield is relatively unknown to readers. Since 1986 the Kingfield area has been mentioned 28 times in news articles, the Phillips area more than 1,250.
So readers are more apt to recognize Phillips in a headline. That doesn’t justify waiting 20 paragraphs to identify Kingfield.
Racial identity
Kathleen Stauffer tells her journalism students at the University of St. Thomas “never to mention race if it isn’t relevant. I tell them to be consistent. Don’t mention it in one case if you wouldn’t in another.”
She says the Star Tribune reported the race March 26 of two murder defendants who escaped from the Austin, Minn., jail, but not the race of federal fugitive Anthony Zappa.
Zappa’s photograph appeared March 20 and 21 prior to his capture. He was “a burly 29-year-old” March 20, a “well-muscled, 247-pound convicted burglar” March 21.
Julie Wright, deputy local news editor, said, “Authorities did not release a description of Zappa. We had a photograph, which revealed that he is male and appeared to be white, but it did not reveal other information about build, height or identifiable markings” for a useful description.
“We will give complete descriptions of fugitives, including race, when available.”
Stauffer says, “If you have a manhunt I don’t think you can say that race is irrelevant.”
Take it on faith
Tuesday’s front-page story about Duke defeating Arizona in the NCAA basketball finals quoted a Duke supporter: “I try not to pray selfishly. But Lord, please hear us.”
Reporter Dick Meryhew wrote: “He did.”
Reader Ken Luke called: “God couldn’t care who wins or loses.”
