When ‘anything goes’ extends to a president’s public language
It is, of course, far more consequential to consider issues surrounding President Trump’s authorization of dropping actual bombs on another country than to wring one’s hands over his willful dropping of the “F-bomb” on Israel and Iran while talking to reporters on the White House lawn. But from a publishing perspective, the latter does deserve some attention.
Consider the lyrics of two popular songs, almost exactly 80 years apart, both titled “Anything Goes.”
First, this from Cole Porter in 1934:
“In olden days, a glimpse of stocking / Was looked on as something shocking / But now, God knows / Anything goes. / Good authors, too, who once knew better words / Now only use four-letter words / Writing prose / Anything goes.“
Now this from the band Florida Georgia Line in 2014:
“Girls headin' off to the river, yeah / Victoria's Secret ain't a secret no more / I brought the songs and who brought the party / Only one way to do it up right / Everybody goes where everybody knows / That anything goes on a Friday night”
Porter’s observation on his culture carries a tone of wry regret. Florida Georgia Line’s resounds with unabashed celebration. There is, I think, something important in the distinction, and it is reflected in the challenges facing respectable news media and their audiences.
No one would deny that society’s tolerance for profanity has increased over the years, and vulgarity in language and imagery has become virtually routine in contemporary music, film, art, advertising, social media and countless other public arenas. Considering that cultural evolution, what is a newspaper’s responsibility when it comes to reporting public events and public speech?
It is not a purely academic question. The Daily Herald still takes the issue quite seriously. While words like damn, hell and ass are all but ubiquitous in everyday writing and speech today, our policies forbid even them from being published unless they’ve been brought to the attention of the managing editor or editor to ensure that the circumstances justify it. I remove or replace those words regularly from the writing of some of our syndicated columnists when they appear to be simply gratuitous or callous. And, more and more, much stronger profanities are finding their way into the mouths of public figures and news commentators expressing themselves on topics we are reporting on.
Even in pictures, our photographers and copy editors find themselves scouring images to make sure that some foul phrase or offensive word isn’t scrawled in graffiti against a wall in the background or slipped into one of the signs among a protesting crowd.
Is all this sensitivity washing really necessary or even appropriate? Are we distorting reality by withholding certain images or phrases from our coverage of an event? Perhaps so. But keep in mind that these questions have always been part of the challenge of finding ways to accurately and thoroughly tell emotional stories without annoying the large portion of our readership that would find certain language or images offensive. And they will continue to be, as long as we or any medium are trying to distill stories for a mass audience of widely diverse sensitivities.
A news organization cannot predict and should not modify the words of newsmakers. But we can tell stories, even those that may involve coarse language, in ways that respect all levels of sensitivity. Toward that goal, it helps us, I think, to strive for a sentiment more like Porter’s wry lament about what “goes” today than Florida Georgia Line’s eager jubilation.
• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His new book “Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper” is available at eckhartzpress.com.