Mainstream outlets generally don’t include profanity in their news reports. But when President Donald Trump condemned Israel and Iran for breaking their ceasefire Tuesday, some outlets broke from tradition.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” Trump told a group of reporters Tuesday morning just outside the White House. He was railing against Israel and Iran for launching attacks against each other just hours after he had announced a ceasefire agreement.
Some broadcasters, like CNN, aired Trump’s full remarks. Others, like ABC 7 in Chicago, censored his use of the f-word, either bleeping it out or removing it entirely. Several split the difference, airing the word on certain news shows but not others.
Online, outlets varied their approach. A few censored the word entirely, both in text and video, while others left it completely uncensored. Several censored the word in text with asterisks or dashes but embedded the raw video. A couple published the raw video but censored the word in the video’s closed captions. One, The New York Times, avoided quoting the word entirely and instead obliquely referred to Trump’s use of “an expletive.”
Traditionally, news outlets don’t publish expletives. The Associated Press, which maintains a stylebook used by most American journalists, advises reporters not to use them in stories “unless they are part of direct quotations and there is a compelling reason for them.” (The AP censored Trump’s comment as “f—-” in its story on his remarks.)
There are two reasons outlets usually avoid coarse language, said Kelly McBride, Poynter’s senior vice president and the chair of the institute’s Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership. One is that the Federal Communications Commission has strict rules against the airing of profanities, and broadcasting the f-word can result in a fine. That norm has then spilled over from broadcasters regulated by the FCC to cable news shows, podcasts and streamers.
The other reason is that news outlets have an implicit — and sometimes explicit — contract with their audience, which includes a general promise not to offend them.
But sometimes it is necessary to include an expletive to convey the severity of a moment to the audience. And this was one of them, McBride said. She has listened to versions of Trump’s remarks that beeped out or silenced his use of the word, but the unedited version is “much more impactful.” His emphasis of the f-word in his comment makes it clear just how angry he is at the situation.
“When you’re covering the president, there are very few moments that are completely unpredictable and unscripted — many more with this president than most, but still — and that was one of them,” McBride said. “And I think the record should reflect the entire moment.”
McBride said that if she were in charge of a broadcast outlet, she would air the comment uncensored. She is unsure what she would do if she were in charge of a newspaper or print magazine, since there’s not as much of a difference between including the full word in print versus an excised version. Regardless, she would tell readers where they could see the video of Trump’s remarks because it is “revealing.”
“Whatever newsrooms decide to do, I hope they have a conversation about what their audience expects and needs from them,” McBride said. “That’s the root of ethics in journalism … the promise between the newsroom and the audience.”
Here’s how different outlets handled Trump’s use of the f-word:
The New York Times
- The Times left the word uncensored in a video of the moment on its website. However, the closed captions in the video refer to it as “[expletive].” In the Times’ story online, it avoided specifying the word Trump used. For example, one reference to the moment reads, “Using an expletive in remarks to reporters, Mr. Trump said that the two adversaries did not know what they were doing, and sharply criticized Israel for firing on Iran ‘right after we made the deal.’”
The Washington Post
- The Post bleeped out the word in a video of the moment on its website, and the closed captions read “[bleep].” In the Post’s story online, it censored the word.
The Wall Street Journal
- The Journal left the word uncensored in a video of the moment on its website. In the Journal’s story online, it censored the word.
The Associated Press
- The AP censored the word in its story online.
Reuters
- Reuters left the word uncensored in a video of the moment on its website, as well as in its story online.
Bloomberg News
- Bloomberg left the word uncensored in its story online.
ABC News
- ABC bleeped out the word in a video of the moment on its website. It censored the word in its story online.
CBS News
- CBS bleeped out the word in its broadcast, and the closed captions on a video online leave the word out entirely. It censored the word in its story online.
CNN
- CNN aired the word uncensored in one of its broadcasts and in its story online. In a video of the moment on its website, however, it bleeped out the word.
Fox News
- Fox bleeped out the word in a video of the moment on its website as well as in one of its broadcasts. It also censored the word in its story online. It published an uncensored version of the video on its LiveNOW site.
MSNBC
- MSNBC silenced the word on a “Morning Joe” broadcast, and it censored the word in its story online. However, it aired the word uncensored in several broadcasts.
NPR
- NPR bleeped out the word in a segment for “All Things Considered.” It also censored the word in its story online.
Axios
- Axios censored the word in its story online.
Politico
- Politico left the word uncensored in its story online.
Los Angeles Times
- The Times left the word uncensored in a video of the moment on its website. It censored the word in its story online.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
- The Inquirer censored the word in its story online.
NBC 4 New York
- NBC 4 left the word uncensored in a video of the moment on its website. It censored the word in a caption of the video as well as in a reprinted story online.
ABC 7 Chicago
- ABC 7 bleeped out the word in its video broadcast. It silenced the word on a video on its website, and it censored the word in a reprinted story online.
CBS 2 Chicago
- CBS 2 bleeped out the word in its video broadcast.
Poynter staff writer Sophie Endrud contributed reporting.
