When the New York Times headline is Avery Punished for Vulgar Remark, you don't have to know who Avery is to know that reading the article will in no way inform you what the vulgar remark was.
True to self-censorship form, the newspaper of record-ish will say only that hockey star Sean Avery "used a derogatory term to refer to his former girlfriends, saying that it had 'become like a common thing in the N.H.L. for guys to fall in love with' them."
So what unprintable term did Avery call Elisha Cuthbert et al? Bitches? Hos? Cunts? Chicks?
Nope. Thanks to less scrupulous tabloids (and YouTube), I learned that what Avery actually said was, "I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about. Enjoy the game tonight."
Enjoy the game! Such a polite Canadian!
The wire services split on this one, with UPI daring to actually report the most relevant detail of the story and AP opting to protect the delicate sensitivities of hockey fans. Guess whose lead most papers followed?
As far as I can tell, the Times has only used the offending phrase twice and never about a person (once incorrectly in a food article and once in a review of what sounds like an alarmingly bad gay comedy, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds. Why they printed the full title is anybody's guess). The phrase has gotten the media in some trouble in the past, but not everyone is so demure. Us Weekly used it to describe Ashlee Simpson.
[h/t: Colby Cosh]
