Headline crossed the line
Dear Editor:
I am writing in response to the headline at the top of Tuesday’s Aspen Times. Over a picture of Henry Paulson, Ben Bernake and Timothy Geithner, it reads, “Inside Job: A Review of How We Were Screwed.”
Let me say first that I do not disagree with the sentiment expressed here. (They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Looking at the faces of the three gentlemen in the photo says it all; these three could not look guiltier if you paid them!) However, I take issue with the way this thought is expressed. I think the choice of language is terribly inappropriate! I work in a school, and if one of my students said that I would reprimand them for swearing!
A newspaper’s use of language should be exemplary. It is not the place for slang or cuss words. In an advice column, a movie review or an editorial there might be some circumstances where it would be appropriate, granted, but the front page is certainly not that. It should be something that we can put in the hands of children or students, feeling confident that it won’t contain anything inappropriate. It should be something that students strive to emulate.
There are other, more eloquent ways of saying the same thing, for example: “Inside Job: A Review of How the Financial Sector Took Advantage of America,” or even stronger, “Inside Job: A Review of How the Financial Sector Raped America.” The use of the word screwed on the front-page of the paper is shocking.
In the “information age” in which we are living we are inundated with information, too much information. These days the quality of information becomes very important. If The Aspen Times wishes to be thought of as a reliable, respectable source of quality information, act as if.
Maureen Tinkle
Glenwood Springs
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