When journalism hits rock bottom, it grabs a jack hammer and keeps going.

As Professor Jacobson reported: The Associated Press has banned the phase “illegal immigrant” from its style guide.

Yet, illegal immigration remains a serious problem for this country, despite the fact that Obama administration officials want to put a positive spin on the situation:

In a Senate hearing on February 13 of this year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said U.S. border security has “never been stronger.” Last week, Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake and Democratic Senators Charles Schumer and Michael Bennet toured the U.S. border in Nogales, Arizona and saw a woman climb an 18-foot fence before she was apprehended by American border security. This year alone, American taxpayers are footing a $113 billion bill to ensure that illegal immigrants receive free education, health care, and other services, according to a study by Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a non-partisan group that has been called to testify in front of Congress about immigration bills more than any other group in the U.S.

Jay Baer, a social media and content strategist, once listed 4 ways that bloggers differ from reporters. Today we can add a 5th: Bloggers will actually assign a proper description to a person, place or thing.

The mocking of the AP’s new rules began almost immediately:

Sonny Bunch, managing editor of the Washington Free Beacon, imagined the new ruling applied to other social groups. “‘Stalker’ is now to be ‘Person who really just wants to be loved, and that’s okay.’”

And via Professor Glenn Reynolds, comes a humorous analysis from Jay Leno (who says, “They will now use the phrase ‘undocumented Democrat’.”):

Michelle Malkin proposes an item for the “bloggers style guide”, with which I thoroughly agree:

I propose that we banish the term “journalist” when referring to members of mainstream news organizations who pose as neutral news-gathers while carrying out a blatantly ideological agenda. From now on, AP’s staffers shall be described in my columns as “alleged practitioners of journalism” or “journalists” only when using direct quotations.

As a friend of mine aptly put it: Journalism didn’t just die. It went to work for the enemy.



