French correction: AP forced to apologize for slapping ‘dehumanizing’ label on France
Ryan King
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The Associated Press has been forced to apologize after it stoked international derision for suggesting listing “the French” among a string of “dehumanizing” labels such as “the mentally ill” and the “the disabled”.
“We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college-educated. Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant,” the AP Stylebook Twitter account wrote.
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The AP Stylebook writes the baseline style and grammar rules on which journalists in media outlets across the country rely for their stories. But the tweet prompted some style corrections from outside observers.
“I guess this is us now,” the French Embassy to the United States tweeted with an image musing about changing its name to the “Embassy of Frenchness in the US.”
https://twitter.com/franceintheus/status/1618735330202652672?s=46&t=iZ_G4qtziLEy0Awvqpqr6w
“We should stop calling people ‘the French; and instead call them ‘people suffering from cheese-eating surrender monkeyness,'” conservative commentator Ben Shapiro wrote in response.
“I believe the correct AP label is ‘the/those f***ing French,'” Jon Stewart quipped.
“I agree with this. Nothing as dehumanizing as being considered one of the French. Rather, such individuals should be thought of as ‘suffering from Frenchness’ and deserve our compassion and prayers,” writer Sarah Haider chided.
https://twitter.com/SarahTheHaider/status/1618681516967735296
Eventually, the Associated Press course corrected and apologized, acknowledging that its use of the term was “inappropriate.”
“The use of ‘the French’ in this tweet by @AP was inappropriate and has caused unintended offense. An updated tweet is upcoming,” the news outlet replied.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1618886123136192513?s=20&t=MPjR0bjfKB8tTIoXDilAkA
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The news outlet later posted an updated tweet that omitted “the French” from its list of insensitive terminology.
“We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing “the” labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the disabled, the college-educated. Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant,” the news outlet wrote.