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Permalink Auto-correct can be a very helpful feature of any word-processing program. But when conservatives use it, they run the risk of embarrassing themselves. Some far-right sites that subscribe to the Associated Press feed, for example, will use auto-correct to change "Democratic Party" to "Democrat Party." This, of course, is because they have the temperament of children. But the American Family Association's OneNewsNow website takes the phenomenon one step further with its AP articles. The far-right fundamentalist group replaces the word "gay" in the articles with the word "homosexual." I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems to make the AFA happy. The problem, of course, is that "gay" does not always mean what the AFA wants it to mean.
reported this morning that sprinter Tyson Gay won the 100 meters at the US Olympic track and field trials over the weekend. The AFA ran the story, but only after the auto-correct had "fixed" the article. That means -- you guessed it -- the track star was renamed "Tyson Homosexual." The headline on the piece read, "Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials." Readers learned: Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the US Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday. His wind-aided 985 seconds was a fairly cut-and-dry performance compared to what happened a day earlier. On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening heat and had to scramble to finish fourth, then in his quarterfinal a couple of hours later, ran 977 to break the American record that had stood since 1999.
Homosexual didn't get off to a particularly strong start in the first semifinal, but by the halfway mark he had established a comfortable lead. He slowed somewhat over the final 10 meters-nothing like the way-too-soon complete shutdown that almost cost him Saturday. Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: "A little fatigued."
Clay Dowling said: Left-leaning publications have made similar mistakes. Substituting the phrase "African American" for "Black," for instance, gives us such jems as "the pot calling the kettle African-American."
p=1174 I am not sure the actual AP content was ever changed from Gay to Homosexual, but all referring headlines from Google and other news aggregators on the website did make the change.
On June 30th, 2008 at 3:38 pm, slippytoad said: These are the same kind of morons who run family-oriented' video stores and see no copyright-related issues with clipping out the "naughty" scenes of a movie that their pure, or puerile, clientele nonetheless wish to titillate themselves with.
On June 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm, David said: So just think of the confusion and laughs if the AFA had picked up today's headline out of the San Jose Mercury News re: the same subject.
On June 30th, 2008 at 4:59 pm, A Keep said: On the plus side, they do honor capitalization, so for instance Mr Gay's last name was not butchered into homosexual, but preserved the proper respect of capitalization as Homosexual.
luomat said: > The far-right fundamentalist group replaces the word "gay" in the articles with the word > "homosexual." I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems to make the AFA happy. I couldn't say for sure why, but I have a reasonable guess. Many people who are Gay or Lesbian tend to avoid using the word "homosexual" because that term was originally used by psychologists as a diagnosis of illness (the APA classified it as a mental illness in 1973 in the DSM-2). Those who want to avoid the suggestion that other's sexual preferences are a medical condition usually avoid the term as well. Thus, one could assume that the AFA changes the word "gay" to "homosexual" because it is more offensive and/or because it suggests that gay/lesbian people can be "cured". It's a little more subtle than "Pro Choice" vs "Pro Life" but it's the same kind of word play.
On June 30th, 2008 at 5:55 pm, matt said: "However, the AFA is not a "fundamentalist" group. They may be conservative or right-wing, but not fundamentalist. According to the mission statement that comes up on their site, "The American Family Association exists to motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth and traditional family values." And I won't even go into the entire section of their website entitled "The Homosexual Agenda." Or the random sentence I just snatched from a random article on the AFA site: "How many times have you not believed what God told you He would do for you and then He comes in spite of your unbelief to increase your faith and help you to see that He is who He says that He is?"
On June 30th, 2008 at 6:02 pm, discussed said: I wouldn't be surprised if the auto-correct was in place as a safety net to catch slurs before they publish articles. These are people who use expressions like, "You know who's responsible for the mortgage crisis don't you? Maybe that way, when they're ranting about "the gays" in a story, it will auto-correct so they sound slightly less bigoted.
On June 30th, 2008 at 6:06 pm, matt said: "These are people who use expressions like, "You know who's responsible for the mortgage crisis don't you? Maybe that way, when they're ranting about "the gays" in a story, it will auto-correct so they sound slightly less bigoted."
rubber hose on June 30th, 2008 at 2:48 pm Leave a Reply Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website The following tags are allowed in comments: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> What color is an orange?
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