On Jan. 11, the Washington Post reported on a closed-door immigration-policy meeting President Trump had with a group of senators. The substance of the meeting itself was eclipsed entirely by the report that the president had asked why we had so many immigrants from “shithole countries.”
The Washington Post ran the word in its headline, and the media coverage of Trump’s comment soon got meta, as various news outlets wrestled with whether or not to report Trump’s unexpurgated, unedited comment. Some did, others refused at first, and some relented later. NPR reversed their initial policy to not say or print the word, but not before having their Standards and Practices Editor, Mark Memmot, on All Things Considered to explain why using the word on the air was necessary: “We do think it’s important to the story. […] Say it once. Move on, and then talk about what it means to the issues that were being discussed at that meeting in the White House.”
The president’s comments drew immediate scrutiny and criticism from politicians and pundits. But the fallout had a very different connotation for an oft-overlooked group: lexicographers. For us, the accurate and unedited reporting of the president’s words is the only thing that enables us to do our job: to describe the English language — good, bad and ugly — as it’s actually used.
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