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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Euphemism Alert: KELO Re-Headlines Colin Steen/Storm Story

...or "GM Gets Headline Bailout"?

Tony Blair exaggerates how much I care about the Indoor Football League.

I care about this much (see photo) about the great tempest surrounding the IFL's Sioux Falls Storm. Stiffing its workers, cheating on sales tax, losing a lawsuit over shoddy astroturf... sounds like just another shady business breaking the rules to make a buck.

But what catches my eye this morning is KELO's gentle revision of its headline about the ouster of Storm general manager Colin Steen. Originally, the headline read, "Steen Out As Storm GM." (KELO did the caps, not me.) Simple, direct, honest.

According to a quick Google search (click image left for larger view, with my green highlighting), that headline went up at 5:36 p.m. 22 minutes later, KELO slapped a new headline on Don Jorgenson's story: "Storm's Colin Steen Pursues Other Opportunities."

Now I can't remember the exact text of the original story, nor can I find a cached version, but I'm pretty sure the text of the story was changed as well to include the "pursue other opportunities" euphemism.

My goodness: is a general manager who has fubarred his organization this badly really worth that much euphemism? Maybe corporate can't shake its marketing-speak, but must the media parrot such doubletalk?

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