NHMC Disappointed With The New York Times’s Continued Use of the “I” Word
PRESS RELEASE
Philip B. Corbett, the associate managing editor for standards, who oversees The Times’s style manual, said in a statement that editors had spent months deliberating the updated style change. “Advocates on one side of this political debate have called on news organizations to use only the terms they prefer,” Mr. Corbett said. “But we have to make those decisions for journalistic reasons alone, based on what we think best informs our readers on this important topic.” He added: “It’s not our job to take sides.”
The following statement can be attributed to Alex Nogales, President & CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition:
“We are very disappointed at The New York Times position to continue sanctioning the word “illegal,” a word that implies criminality and has become a racial slur. Language does evolve. In the past, we’ve seen words dropped by media outlets when they are harmful. One example is the success that the LGBT community had with the word “homosexual,” major media outlets heard the LGBT community and stopped using this word. Mr. Corbett states that media’s job is not to take sides, but in effect The New York Times is taking a side when it continues to use a word that has lost any descriptive meaning and is used by anti-immigrants to impugn immigrants.”
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About NHMC
The National Hispanic Media Coalition is a non-partisan, non-profit, media advocacy and civil rights organization established in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. Its mission is to educate and influence media corporations on the importance of including U.S. Latinos at all levels of employment. It augments the pool of Latino talent with it s professional development programs. It challenges media that carelessly exploit negative Latino stereotypes. It scrutinizes and opines on media and telecommunications policy issues. Learn more athttp://www.nhmc.org. Receive real-time updates on Facebook and on twitter @NHMC.