Swearing off a curse word
Mark McLennan took serious exception to a curse word he saw in the Star.
The phrase in question? “Jesus Christ. It finally f---ing happened.”
Only McLennan didn’t object to the swear word that had been dashed out. Rather, he was unhappy with the curse that had been left in.
“I find the explicit quote of the words ‘Jesus Christ,’ while deleting the word ‘f---ing,’ inconsistent,” wrote the retired Presbyterian clergy member. “As a man of faith, I find the full spelling in the quote offensive. I am actually less offended by the word ‘f---ing,’ which is a swear word by social convention.
“‘Jesus Christ’ as a swear word is a direct affront to people of Christian faith,” he stated.
Full disclosure. I had to delete the full spelling of the f-word word from McLennan’s email in keeping with our style. Which takes us to the heart of his concern.
First, some background. The phrase appeared in an Aug. 2 story in the Star written by Hamilton Spectator journalist Jon Wells about the life and death of animal activist Regan Russell. She was attending a protest outside a Burlington meat plant when she was hit and killed by a truck carrying pigs.
The phrase was uttered by a man filming the aftermath of the scene on his phone as captured in a documentary by Varun Virlan.
No doubt, there is a shock value to the entire phrase.
Wells says he did reflect on whether that phrase was needed in the story.
“It was a brutal, tragic and frightening moment and his language live in that moment reflected that. To go with just the first part of the quote and clean it up to read simply ‘It finally happened’ would have drained it of power and meaning,” Wells told me.
“As for Jesus Christ, I mulled over whether to include it … I think in describing the death scene, it belongs there. I would never use JC in a story as an epithet casually,” Wells said.
In the arc of his 2,600-word piece, he thinks it was justified — though he understands how it could offend.
The Torstar Journalistic Standards Guide states that, “swear words, sexually charged and blasphemous words” should be rarely used unless in direct quotations.
“In publishing obscenities, we use short dashes following the first letter, except in rare cases, determined by senior editors, where spelling out the word in full is considered central to understanding the context of the news,” it states.
In 2014, my predecessor, Kathy English, polled Star readers whether they would publish an actor’s exclamation of “Jesus Christ.” Almost two-thirds — 63 per cent — said they would while 37 per cent said no, declaring that it was deeply offensive to Christians.
It does raise the question if journalists and editors decide a swear word is essential to a story, then why dash it out?
The answer there is the desire of readers. In 2014, they told English that they didn’t want to see swear words spelled out. Six years on, I still don’t think Star readers want to see stories laced with swear words.
But the crux of McLennan’s concern is the inconsistency, in his mind.
The Star made a judgment call, deciding that the f-word would be more offensive to readers than “Jesus Christ.” As McLennan notes, using the term as a swear word is a “direct affront,” especially to those of Christian faith. In that light, I’m not sure that dashing it out makes it less offensive.
In this case, I agree with Wells that it drove home the shock and horror of Russell’s death and the impact it had on her fellow protesters. But it’s not a phrase that should ever be used casually by journalists.
So far fortunately, it hasn’t. A search of the Star archives shows it has been used only sparingly as a curse over the past 18 months. McLennan has provided a good reminder why the Star should strive to keep it that way.
Last word: Readers have complained about recent Star stories that have referred to events happening in “Africa” rather than specifying the exact country. “This lazy reporting is insulting to people from the continent of Africa whose experience is minimized to a monolith,” one reader said. Fifty-five member states make up the African Union with a total population topping 1.2 billion people. The Star owes it to readers to be specific.