Fun with a purpose

There are many who continue to see the media as being too worried about being politically correct. There is a fine line between being politically correct and sensitive to how a word or phrase will affect a person or group of people. And I am not sure a lot of editors and reporters have figured out where that line is yet.

I remember several years ago a newspaper — I think it was in Minnesota — installed a word proicessing macro that automatically changed "black" to "African-American." Okay, no problem as long as someone looked to make sure the change was appropriate.

And one time it wasn't. There was a story about South Africa and apartheid. And sure enough in the story was "African-American South Africans."