The print version of the New York Times that is delivered to me at home featured a story on the fight against an invasive fish called the northern pike today. It seemed innocuous enough until an official was quoted referring to the current plan to eliminate the fish as a "final solution" -- a phrase previously used by Nazis to refer to the Holocaust (text via Nexis):
But like Captain Ahab or perhaps Wile E. Coyote, the state has not let a little adversity stop it. On Monday, more than 500 fish and game personnel began what one official called a "final solution," a $16 million effort to rid the lake of pike, the most expensive ever undertaken against an "invasive species" in California.
Yikes. How did that language get into print? Someone must have caught on, because the online version of the story drops the quote:
But like Captain Ahab or perhaps Wile E. Coyote, the state has not let a little adversity stop it. On Monday, more than 500 fish and game personnel began a last-ditch, $16 million effort to rid the lake of pike, the most expensive ever undertaken against an “invasive species” in California.
However, there's no disclosure of a change. I'm glad the Times realized that the language was inflammatory, but how about some transparency?
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