When NYT Dropped the F Bomb

The New York Times, which tolerates no expletives or profanities in its copy, recently dropped its first ‘F’ bomb.

The New York Times, that paragon of enduring virtue in the grim world of contemporary newspaper journalism, which tolerates no expletives or profanities in its copy, recently dropped its first ‘F’ bomb. The website Salon reported Monday that this was the first ever instance of the paper printing the word ‘fuck’. As part of a feature on the rooms where writers work, the 25 August 2013 issue of T: The New York Times Style Magazine carried the opening lines of four new books, among which was Jonathan Lethem’s new novel Dissident Gardens, which opens: ‘Quit fucking black cops or get booted from the Communist party.’ Salon later added a correction to the piece, acknowledging that—as several tweeters and a piece on Slate had already pointed out—the NYT had, in fact, printed the word once before. This was in 1998, when the paper reproduced the entire text of the Starr Report—an investigative report on then US President Bill Clinton. The word ‘fuck’ had then been printed as part of a quote from Monica Lewinsky in the report.

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