Can you use the word "lynch" in a story?

I agree with you, but your avatar of a guy in what looks like black face doesn't help.

 

It’s what I came up with on the fly. Say fans want players cut or demoted or whatever. Few people question players they think belong on the team, though.

 

It's Jerry Lewis in clown makeup.

 

The offending passage had a quote a couple of graphs later that had the manager defending the roster. That quote felt out of played without something added about people wanting players dropped. But the quote dang sure doesn’t justify a lunching metaphor.

 

In the film he kept locked away because he hated it, right?

 

The term "upside" was used earlier, and that's what I keep coming back to.

Was using the term and turn of phrase so ingenious, so clever and so necessary to telling the story, to make the P-D want to weather some people getting pissy about it and complaining? I guess not, since they edited it to say basically the same thing without "lynch" after about 12 hours on the site. The last thing newspapers need are things that make people hate them and kill credibility for no good reason.

This did that … and again, for no good reason.

The thing I'm most curious about is how much of a leash any copy editors - on site or remotely - have to edit Hummel. I'm guessing there aren't any copy editors there with much seniority or high pay, and I'm guessing they would be at least hesitant to take a heavy hand to a Hall of Famer's prose.

 

Correct. "The Day the Clown Cried."

 

Might be the only time in his life that Jerry Lewis was funny.

 

As someone who lives and works in Birmingham, I can tell you that "Lynch" would definitely be a no-go. No upside, way too much downside. "Drawn and quartered" was particularly creative, though.

 

I was dumbfounded when reading this thread that NOBODY sooner had come to this conclusion. Agree 110%. There is absolutely no justifiable reason for using "lynch" or "lynched." It bleeds racism. No. Never. Ever. Under any circumstance. The copy editor that let this slide is a pussy and a moron.

 

Tell you what pal, since it's not racist, why don't you start using it in your own copy? Then come back and let us know how that worked out.

 

Otay, pal