How News Organizations Treated “S***hole”


When the infamous “pussy” tape was leaked, news organizations grappled with how to convey the off-color remark. Today, news organizations had a new struggle after the Washington Post reported (and several other news organizations confirmed) that President Donald Trump deemed Haiti and Africa a “s***hole.”

The Washington Post, CNN, and the Associated Press all used the word with no censoring in their push notifications. The Los Angeles Times called it a slur while the New York Times opted to call it vulgar language.

On cable news, CNN has gone with the full word uncensored. MSNBC initially censored part of the word, but moved to uncensored later in the day. Fox News has depicted the word censored.

CBS Evening News expressed the word as “sh*thole” on-air and with their tweets while ABC World News Tonight opted for “s***hole” on-air. NBC Nightly News was a bit inconsistent, using “s***hole” in the lower third but featuring the full word as part of a quote and saying the word unbleeped.

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About Tyler

Tyler is the chief media reporter for TKNN, with the news organization since its founding in November of 2010. He has previously served as chief political reporter and chief political anchor for TKNN.

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