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March 26, 2003
Style Over Substance at the NY Times
"Boris Johnson (UK MP) wrote for the New York Times, which found some of his words unfit to print."
Excerpt from the Article:
- ...I started to get a floaty, out-of-body sensation when he [the editor] said that he had made a change to a sentence about donations of US overseas aid to key members of the UN Security Council. I had said something to the effect that you don’t make international law by giving new squash courts to the President of Guinea. This now read ‘the President of Chile’. Come again? I said. Qué?
‘Uh, Boris,’ said Tobin [the editor], ‘it’s just easier in principle if we don’t say anything deprecatory about a black African country, and since Guinea and Chile are both members of the UN Security Council, and since it doesn’t affect your point, we would like to say Chile.’
... How craven and mealy-mouthed can you get?
Posted by crandal at March 26, 2003 04:39 PM