Wednesday, July 16, 2008

AFA Changes Sprinter’s Name

This is one of those examples showing that perhaps computers have a little too much influence in our lives, and one that underscores our inability to anticipate unintended consequences...

From the Associated Press (AP), Washington, DC — The American Family Association sometimes suffers from its policy on re-editing AP news copy. Whenever an AP article uses the word "gay," the AFA's OneNewsNow replaces it with "homosexual." The AFA apparently uses auto-correct to do this. You can already guess where this is going.

Tyson Gay recently won the 100 meter race at the U. S. Olympic trials. The initial AFA report on this read (in part):

Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials...

Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal. On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening heat and had to scramble to finish fourth. Homosexual didn't get off to a particularly strong start in the first semifinal, but by the halfway mark he had established a comfortable lead. Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: "A little fatigued."

Tyson Gay was identified correctly in updated versions of the story.

Copyright © 2008 by Associated Press.

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