Downside Of Political Correctness p. 9

By: Mark Fitzgerald

Subscription cancellations continue to trickle in several months
after the Star Tribune of Minneapolis announced it would no
longer use American Indian team nicknames on its sports pages sp.

MONTHS AFTER THE Star Tribune of Minneapolis announced it would no longer use American Indian team nicknames on its sports pages, people are still angrily cancelling subscriptions.
Funny thing is, though, nobody even noticed that the team nicknames had disappeared weeks before the formal announcement last December.
"We experimented in the sports pages without telling anybody for some time ? and nobody noticed," Star Tribune executive editor Julie Engebrecht told the recent annual meeting of the Organization of News Ombudsmen in Minneapolis.
"We actually were not going to announce the change, but some of the reporters who were not pleased with [the policy] went to [told] other media," said Engebrecht, who added she is also surprised at the continuing anger of some readers.
"People are still cancelling their subscriptions today," she said. "I've learned that there are many people in this community ? many more than I ever would have thought ? who just do not think Native Americans deserve any respect at all."
Discussion about changing the Star Tribune policy followed last year's ground-breaking decision by the Portland Oregonian to drop all Indian team references.
The initial decision, Engebrecht said, was that the paper "did not want to inject ourselves" into the controversy over whether sports teams should have Indian names.
However, beginning in September, a few sportswriters on their own stopped referring to the team nicknames in their stories.
A committee of six sports journalists came up with the new policy, which was announced in December ? just as the Minnesota Vikings were to play the Washington Redskins.
"Some of the staff were very supportive. Some of them were terribly angry about it," Engebrecht said.
The Star Tribune's new style differs a little from the policy adopted by the Portland Oregonian, which eliminates all sports team references to Indian peoples.
Indian-related nicknames such as Redskins, Indians or Braves are prohibited by the Star Tribune, but the policy permits tribal team names, such as the Florida State University Seminoles.
Even here there can be complications: The paper, Engebrecht said, is mulling what to do about the "Fighting Illini" of the University of Illinois ? a name that combines a real tribal name with a nickname.
Engebrecht said she is not terribly worried about the dreaded PC, politically correct, brand.
"My answer to that is we've lumped all kinds of sensitivity issues into the political correctness arena, and I don't know what PC means anymore," she said.
For one thing, Engebrecht added, the Star Tribune is only mirroring what is happening in Twin Cities sports.
"There used to be about 70 high schools that had Indian nicknames. Now it's down to 14," she said.
Nor was the paper responding to any lobbying from Minnesota's substantial American Indian population, she said.
"The activist base for making the change is here [in the Twin Cities], but they never put any pressure on us to do it," she said. "I have, though, gotten many letters of thanks."
And despite the continuing low-level resistence from readers, Engebrecht said, "It hasn't affected our coverage in any way. It's become routine."