Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Somewhere an editor is crying in his beer...

Staghounds reports a bit of an oopsie at The Gray Lady in an article on ChiCom computer espionage.

I got a screen grab for posterity, just in case it goes down the memory hole:



I see sensitivity training in someone's near future.


UPDATE:

That was fast! Winston Smith was at his desk early this morning. I'll bet someone's resume is being updated right about.... now.

30 comments:

TBeck said...

Oh, that must burn.

staghounds said...

Already scrubbed it!

I'm stealing your screen cap, I just printed it.

Jay G said...

Wow, they're certainly not niggardly with the erase pen, are they?

Joanna said...

I had to read that twice before I saw what the "problem" was. Stupid language revisionists ...

Tam said...

Given the subject of the article, even I found it a mite tacky.

Drang said...

I dunno, I kinda liked it.

staghounds said...

They must have a whole room full of Winstons monitoring RSS feeds or something, that was VERY quick.

And no mention of the change...

Funny, isn't it? It's all over the web in the original version. It was written and reviewed by all the oh so sensitive NYT staff, was up at the NYT for a whole day, fifty comments, who knows how many thousand earnest lefty readers.

And no one caught it before evil Anglo raaacist hunting mad conservative gun nut me.

Anonymous said...

Wow. This post needs a beverage warning. And possibly a NSFW warning, too. It's hard to explain to coworkers why you suddenly burst out laughing when it's something you really shouldn't be doing.

wv: rooze - I bet the editor who let that slip by rooze the day.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Sorry, but that right there is fun-NEE.

wv: cloun. The editor who let that slip by. :)

ParatrooperJJ said...

Those chinks can really screw up your day.

pdb said...

If I loved this any more, I'd put it in high heels and lipstick and show it a good time.

Chas S. Clifton said...

Darn you, Jay G, you stole my line.

NotClauswitz said...

We had some take-out gap food this weekend that was real tasty!

Joel said...

Gosh. I should alert Frank Rich, because though I'm white I don't seem to be a racist. The "chink" thing totally went over my head on the first read.

staghounds said...

Dirtcrasher wins the internets this week.

BobG said...

Does that mean that someone at Walmart has to go through and change all the labels to "Gap Made"?

Anonymous said...

That'll teach 'em to call a spade a spade...

AT

Dixie said...

Wow, they're certainly not niggardly with the erase pen, are they?

Watch your mouth, you racist!

(chuckle)

Anonymous said...

I shall never look at The Gap the same again.

Jim

w/v: couli. I swear it is so upon my life.

Anonymous said...

chink1   /tʃɪŋk/ Show Spelled[chingk] Show IPA
–noun
1.a crack, cleft, or fissure: a chink in a wall.
2.a narrow opening: a chink between two buildings.
–verb (used with object)
3.to fill up chinks in.
Use chink in a Sentence
See images of chink
Search chink on the Web

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1350–1400; ME; perh. chine1 + -k suffix (see -ock)


—Synonyms
1. breach, rent, cut

I can't believe that people/nutbags are getting upset about this

Drang said...

They're just a bunch of renegers!

Tam said...

anon 3:53,

Yes, I know that.

However, it has a street meaning which elevates it to the level of awkward double entendre, given the subject of the article.

If it was a cold and breezy day when Emperor Akihito's personal aircraft touched down at Dulles, would it be proper to include the sentence "There was a little nip in the air..." in the official reportage of the incident? I think not.

staghounds said...

If some R congressman said this in a hearing of the armed services committee on cyber security, the New York Times would have to be printed on asbestos to bear the invective.

The point, anon, isn't that people are getting upset. I found it, and I'm not "upset".

I'm irritated that the NYT does something that would get most of us notorious if the NYT found out about it. And more and they give themselves a pass by memory holing the entire incident.

Tam said...

staghounds,

I know what they meant, of course, and had they included the rest of the homily ("...in the armor") I probably wouldn't have said "boo".

As it is, it's merely a gaffe on the order of trailing a few squares of TP from the restroom on one's heel... Unless one is, like The Gray Lady, the self-appointed arbiter of decorum, in which case said trailing TP squares go from mildly amusing to completely risible. ;)

A Horse Thief said...

I laughed until I died. Then I read the comments and laughed until I snorted. I'm just really glad that I wasn't drinking and reading.

Rob said...

"I laughed until I died. Then I read the comments and laughed until I snorted."

ZOMBIE!

Borepatch said...

And people say that computer security isn't any fun.

;-)

Quite frankly, I blame the lack of focus on racial sensitivity in George W. Bush's Amerikkka in general, and at the New York Times in particular. They must all be a bunch of thoughtless Republicans or something.

Anonymous said...

Am I evil because now I keep wanting to sing "Do wop, do wop do wop!"

LittleRed1 - a gringo of cracker ancestry

mts1 said...

And I get in trouble for thanking the Mexican cleaning lady for cleaning the kitchen and bathroom so Spic and Span ...

staghounds said...

Rehab bus heading your way, mts 1!