"Barack Hussein Obama" Now OK With the NYT
After several stories criticizing conservatives for using Barack Obama's middle name, the Times leads with it.
Posted by:
Clay Waters
8/28/2008 12:57:53 PM
After admonishing the GOP for calling Barack Obama by his full name, the Times has apparently judged it politically correct to use Obama's middle name "Hussein." In fact, the paper leads with it.
Slate's "Today's Papers" column by Daniel Politi pondered:
Interestingly enough, the NYT chooses to refer to Obama by his full name, "Barack Hussein Obama," not only in its lead story but also in a profile of the nominee that runs on the front page. None of the other papers does this, and as far as TP can tell, it's the first time in the past year that the NYT has written Obama's middle name in a straight news story outside of a quote.
Politi is correct. The first words from Adam Nagourney's lead story:
Barack Hussein Obama, a freshman senator who defeated the first family of Democratic Party politics with a call for a fundamentally new course in politics, was nominated by his party on Wednesday to be the 44th president of the United States.
"Hussein" also cropped up in Jodi Kantor's front-page "Man In The News" profile Thursday in both the headline and the text. Having finally embraced the Democratic nominee's full name, will the paper now apologize for previously laying into Republicans for doing the same thing?
From a July 4 story by Patrick Healy quoting McCain aides:
At the same time, they said they were trying to be careful about overreaching, noting that Mr. McCain has pledged to run a “respectful” campaign. They said Mr. McCain felt forced to distance himself from conservatives who sought to damage his opponent by using Mr. Obama’s full name, Barack Hussein Obama, or by running a commercial that played up his ties to his former pastor, who has been criticized as making racially inflammatory remarks.
From a February 27 Michael Luo story:
Mr. Obama’s middle name, which is Muslim in origin, comes from his late father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan. [Radio host Bill] Cunningham, like some other conservative commentators, uses it frequently when referring to Mr. Obama, apparently to draw attention to his ancestry. Mr. Obama has been dogged by whispered rumors that he is a Muslim; he is a Christian.
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