The Bogosphere is buzzing with the
realization the Associated Press Style Book, the bible of the reporting world,
dropped the term "Illegal Immigrant" in favor of "Undocumented Worker." Of
course that is politically charged, and is perhaps why only those on the right
of the political spectrum are speaking out. For example, Debbie Schlussel wrote
an article titled "Is
Anyone Surprised that AP Dropped "Illegal Immigrant" From Its Stylebook (Back
in October)?" and Yisrael Medad wrote "So,
AP, What Am I Now?".
In his posting, Mr. Medad
who lives in Shilo, Israel asks: "So, am I still an "illegal settler"? Living
in an "illegal settlement"? Am I not a "revenant" residing in a community?"
Mr. Medad brings up a very good point. While the AP
is playing politics, it is inherently discriminating against Israel by joining
the Arab boycott of Israel. The fact is the AP should therefore drop the
equally discriminating term "Occupied Territories" when discussing Israel. As
detailed in the book Boycotting
Peace by Fred Taub, the Oslo Agreement inherently nullified the Palestinian
claim of "Occupied Territories." When the Palestinians accepted the Oslo
Agreement which assigns land to Jews and Arabs, the Palestinian Arabs accepted
autonomy. It is simply illogical to have an autonomous occupation - you just
can't have it both ways.
Boycott Watch President
Fred Taub said "The AP is about reporting the news fairly which they are not
doing here. Instead, they are deciding the results of a political issue for
reporters who are supposed to be fair and objective. The AP may as well come
out and declare a victory for other left-wing political groups as well by
declaring all meat is murder, that abortions are right up to the moment of
birth is acceptable for people of all faiths, and that Jews in Israel may only
live where Arabs say they can live. The AP has inherently declared itself
politically partisan and I would not be surprised to see the AP losing its
status as the sole arbiter of news reporting style, opening the door for a
competing style book to take hold. The AP is literally asking reporters to
boycott them."
Boycott Watch has often warned
businesses against taking sides in politically partisan issues, but what makes
this case unique is not that a news organization has declared a political
orientation, but rather the single rulebook for writers which has enjoyed the
status of non-partisanship just threw out their own rules. "They have created
writers anarchy" continued Fred Taub. "All writers may as well all forgo
capitalization rules, newspapers may has well skip by-lines and for that
matter, why give credit for quotes anymore? The AP has declared their own
politics are more important than anyone else's, or anything else for that
matter. As such, about half the writers will inherently be boycotting the AP
Stylebook. I do not know what percentage of AP profits comes from Style Book
sales, but it does not take a marketing genius to realize the AP will lose
sales as a result, thus affecting their overall profit margin." |
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