Biden Calls the Republicans 'Un-American'

Editorial of The New York Sun | March 26, 2021 

President Biden was clocking along fairly well, we thought, as he worked his way toward the end of his first presidential press conference. He may have been a bit halt here and there, but he tried to speak in paragraphs, a refreshing change. Plus, he sketched his priorities a bit, which showed glimpses of strategic thinking (read, retreat). Then, however, he flung at the Republicans the word “un-American.”

We confess we’ve never liked that epithet. It’s not the McCarthy-ish tone that puts us off. It’s the nastiness of the phrase that we don’t like, and its imprecision. One wouldn’t get the same definition of the word from, we’d hazard, two in a hundred persons. Plus, the phrase is warned against in “The New York Sun Reporters Handbook and Manual of Style.”

In that guide to usage, the expression “un-American” is tucked between “ultra-Orthodox” (which is not allowed in the Sun; it prefers simply “Orthodox”) and “unattributed negative quotes” (which are also not allowed absent special dispensation). Use of the word “un-American” is not banned outright. Reporters, though, are prompted to try instead using the word “unconstitutional.”.........To Read More...