Associated Press apologizes after being mocked for newspeak advisory

The Associated Press Thursday apologized for its latest newspeak advisory in which it instructed its reporters to drop the word “the” when referring to groups.

“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,” the AP’s Stylebook tweeted. “And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant.”

The AP was subjected to a deluge of mockery, including from Rebel News CEO Ezra Levant who pointed out that the news wire has no qualms about calling COVID-19 “a disease of the unvaccinated”.

Conservative satire website the Babylon Bee chimed in, saying they thought it was one of their joke stories.

“The AP has declared the word ‘the’ offensive,” Babylon Bee Editor-in-Chief Kyle Mann wrote. “I thought this was a @TheBabylonBee story for a second — and I run The Babylon Bee.”

“So then why do call yourself ‘The’ Associated Press,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk piled on.

“I believe the correct AP label is ‘the/those f***ing French,’” tweeted comedian Jon Stewart.

“My favorite movie is The Connection With Frenchness,” comedian Jeremy McClellan wrote.

The French Embassy responded to the AP’s tweet by pretending to consider renaming itself "Embassy of Frenchness in the United States". “I guess this is us now…” the embassy tweeted.

“We just wondered what the alternative to ‘the French’ would be,” French Embassy spokesman Pascal Confavreux told the New York Times. “I mean, really.”

The Associated Press deleted the tweet and apologized for its mention of the French, but doubled down on the newspeak.

“We deleted an earlier tweet because of an inappropriate reference to French people. We did not intend to offend,” wrote in a tweet. “Writing French people, French citizens, etc., is good. But ‘the’ terms for any people can sound dehumanizing and imply a monolith rather than diverse individuals.”

The AP said that it still recommends avoiding such phrases as “the poor, the mentally ill, the wealthy, the disabled, the college-educated”.

“The Stylebook also recommends using a mix of identity-first language (homeless people) and person-first language (people who are homeless) if the preference of an individual or group can't be determined,” the news wire added.

The AP’s blunder came just weeks after Stanford University was forced to walk back its own newspeak advisory in which it recommended against using the term “American” and using “U.S. citizen” instead.

Stanford’s list of approved semantics published last month urged the removal of “harmful language” like the term “committed suicide,” which it said was “ableist”. 

Other terms no longer approved by Stanford include “rape victim”. Instead, one should say a “person who has experienced rape” or a “person who has been impacted by rape.” This is to avoid defining people “by just one of their experiences.” 

People are to avoid saying “basket case,” “blind study” and “blind review.” 

The university also cautions against using the word “Hispanic”. Instead, one should say “Latinx,” a racist term considered offensive by most Hispanics.   

Any negative use of the word “black” (e.g., “blackbox,” “blacklist”) is frowned upon, as are the words “master,” “slave labor” and “red team” (because red might be offensive to “Indigenous peoples”). Conversely, any positive use of the word “white” should be avoided.   

After being met with intense backlash, Stanford said they “clearly missed the mark” and hid the list behind a login page.