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Journalists make choices all the time that influence the public's understanding of the news. What stories to cover, what people to interview, what words to use.
As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, in recent weeks, news organizations have been reconsidering the words they use to describe the 11 million people now in the country illegally.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: News organizations as institutions often decide what terms to use in describing contentious subjects and then codify them in what are called style books. They're subject to change just as society's views change. Just consider terms used to describe race in this country.
When it comes to the question of people who are in this country illegally, recently you've heard a lot of coverage sounding like this.
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FOLKENFLIK: Roberto Suro is a former reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post. He's now a scholar at the University of Southern California.
ROBERTO SURO: News organizations are kind of struggling. They're reflecting what's happening with society. What we see in the political arena is a society that's trying to sort out how to think about these people and where they belong in our society.
FOLKENFLIK: As Congress debates the merits of creating a quicker means for people here illegally to obtain citizenship, several major news outlets have shifted their policies. In April, the Associated Press decided the word illegal would only be used to describe actions, not people, as in talking about the issue of illegal immigration not illegal immigrants.
At the Los Angeles Times, Henry Furhmann noticed reporters were writing articles where they did not use the term illegal immigrant, even though it was preferred. Furhmann is an assistant managing editor at the L.A. Times who oversees standards, and he also oversees the paper's copy editing desk charged with enforcing those standards.
HENRY FURHMANN: I thought we had to either affirm our style and try to apply it more regularly or, in fact, listen to the voices of the newsroom - as we're listening to the voices outside the newsroom - and say maybe it was time for a fresh start.
FOLKENFLIK: Fuhrman himself is the son of an American father and a Japanese mother. He was born in Japan while his father served in the Navy. His mother became a naturalized American citizen. Fuhrmann asked one reporter: What do you use in your own articles?
FURHMANN: He found that, to his surprise, that he would use illegal immigrant if he was talking to, say, advocates of, say, stricter border control. And he would use undocumented immigrant if he was talking more to those being described, let's say.
FOLKENFLIK: The L.A. Times changed its policy, dropping both illegal and undocumented immigrants for a fuller description of those people. The New York Times has not abandoned illegal immigrant but encourage deeper characterization, as well - a position shared by NPR.
Mickey Kaus, of the right of center website The Daily Caller, who has been critical of pushes to relax immigration restrictions, says journalists are bending to ideological pressure.
MICKEY KAUS: Well it's heavily politically loaded, I think illegal immigrants is really quite a clear phrase. It's so clear that President Obama used it when he was trying to make himself clear in a speech. He later apologized. But the fact that he used it implies that it is a very useful shorthand, as are all words, for what you're talking about.
FOLKENFLIK: Kaus says news organizations are tying themselves in knots in order not to offend Latino activists, Latino consumers, and the advertisers who hope to reach them.
KAUS: Now we have this theory that no one word can possibly describe the inevitable state of being - whatever it is. Maybe it should be an unpronounceable symbol like Prince 'cause we don't dare to give it a name. Language is supposed to give things names and I don't think illegal immigrant is that offensive a name.
FOLKENFLIK: The Fox News Channel has some particularly notable wrinkles on the subject. Here's Monica Crowley substituting for Sean Hannity a few weeks ago.
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FOLKENFLIK: Illegals, that's old school. Fox News' preferred term is illegal immigrant, though anchor Shepard Smith will sometimes use the phrase undocumented immigrant. But Bryan Llenas, a reporter for Fox's sister website, Fox News Latino, told Fox viewers why this issue is charged for Hispanics.
BRYAN LLENAS: Nine in 10 support the DREAM Act, 85 percent support undocumented workers working in this country. So, and if you ask them whether they prefer the word illegal versus undocumented, a majority of them believe that the word illegal, the term illegal immigrant, is offensive.
FOLKENFLIK: Which is why Fox News Latino does not use it.
USC's Roberto Suro says journalists are attempting to sidestep the raging political debate, but they cannot avoid getting swept up in it.
David Folkenflik, NPR News.
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