You might be surprised which publications cover up the word “fag.”
Most recently the word emerged in a slew of news stories with a gay pastor suing a Whole Foods in Austin, Texas because he received a cake with a gay slur in the frosting. The cake read: “Love Wins Fag.” The store alleges that the store is not responsible for writing the word “fag” on the cake.
BuzzFeed went with “gay slur” in its headline.
But shockingly, BuzzFeed, which boasts its LGBT vertical and presume to be the leading tabloid of political correctness, showed a picture of the cake, complete with the word “fag.”
Other publications, such as USA Today, blurred out the word, even on the cake.
Another shocker was HuffPost, which has a “Queer Voices” section. They are among the few pubs who slapped the word “fag” right in the headline: “Whole Foods To Countersue Pastor Who Claims He Received A ‘Fag’ Cake.”
A more prudish USA Today refused to use the word “fag” anywhere in its story. The pub replaced the word “fag” as a “gay slur” and explained the ordeal like this: “The three-letter word written on the cake upset the pastor.”
LawNewz, a site by Mediaite Founder Dan Abrams, also wouldn’t use “fag.” He went with “homophobic slur” in the headline and also blurred out the word on the cake. When reporting what the word on the cake was, the writer wrote “F–” and later referred to it as a “slur.”
Fox7 had an interesting way of avoiding the word “fag.” They blurred out the “ag” part of the word on the cake and just went with “Love Wins F.” In the story, they also called it a “homophobic slur.”
FoxNews.com went with “F**” and “anti-gay slur.”
The Daily Caller, not known for it’s shyness, put it all out there with some taste. The headline in a story by Derek Hunter was, “Hate Cake Or Fake: Did Whole Foods Write Anti-Gay Slur On A Cake?” The word “fag” was spelled out and actually capitalized by the second graph. The picture of the cake showed the word “fag” and did not do anything untoward with the frosting.
Raw Story might as well have gone to a day spa and not covered the story at all. Author Arturo Garcia writes an entire piece without ever explaining what the hell the offending word was. In the headline he calls it a “homophobic slur.” A picture of the cake accompanying the story does include the word “fag,” but if it takes a while to load (as it did for me on my MacBook Air), it takes awhile to know the facts.
The Washington Post had maybe the funniest description of the word: They called it an “anti-gay decoration.” They also ominously warn the reader up top that they may have a nervous breakdown if they read on. “Warning: The post contains graphic language.”
In the second graph, the writer lays out what was written on the cake: “Love Wins F-g.” The picture included in the story has the full word written out, no smeared frosting. However, the rest of the piece, even when someone is quoting and has clearing said the word, goes with “f-g.”