Now that the firestorm over how the Associated Press refers to partners in gay marriages has died down, it's time to stoke some new flames! The Associated Press announced today it will no longer use the description "illegal immigrant" as part of its style.
Via ABC News:
The Associated Press, the largest news-gathering outlet in the world, will no longer use the term "illegal immigrant." The news came in the form of a blog entry authored by Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll on Tuesday afternoon, explaining that the decision is part of the company's on-going attempt to rid their Stylebook of labels. "The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term 'illegal immigrant' or the use of 'illegal' to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that 'illegal' should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally," Carroll wrote.
AP reps go on to note that they prefer to label behavior rather than people, describing schizophrenics as people "diagnosed with schizophrenia" rather than just schizophrenics.
Does this mean they'll also stop using the word "felon"? We have a lot of nouns in the English language that have behavioral labels and judgments embedded in them.
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