The Associated Press, America’s largest news agency, has apologized after being criticized for warning journalists against quoting “the French”.
The AP Stylebook Twitter account advised writers to avoid using “the” in phrases like “disabled, poor, and French.”
He said it could be dehumanizing.
The French Embassy briefly changed its name to the “French Embassy in the United States”.
“We were just wondering what would be the alternative to French,” embassy spokesman Pascal Confaverix told JEE News. “I mean, really.”
The original AP tweet received more than 20 million views and 18,000 retweets before it was deleted.
It was widely mocked on social media.
Author Sarah Haider joked that “there is nothing quite as dehumanizing as being considered one of the French” and that a better term is “victim of Frenchness”.
Ian Bremer, a political scientist, suggested “people experiencing French” as an alternative.
After her tweet was deleted, AP Stylebook said her reference to French people was “inappropriate” but that it was “not intended to offend”.
He wrote, “It is fine to write of French people, French nationals, etc. But for any people the “terms” may seem dehumanizing and may imply a monotony rather than a diverse individual.”
“That’s why we recommend avoiding common ‘the’ labels such as poor, mentally ill, rich, disabled, college educated,” he wrote.
For example, a better term than “poor” was “people with incomes below the poverty line.”
Lauren Easton, AP corporate communications vice president, told French daily Le Monde: “The reference to ‘French’ as well as ‘college educated’ is an attempt to show that labels should not be used. for, whether they are conventionally or stereotypically viewed as positive, negative or neutral.”
The AP Stylebook is considered one of the best style guides for journalists and other writers, especially in the US.
