Katrina’s one-year anniversary is tomorrow. The next two weeks are going to be awash (no pun intended) with Katrina stories and then a segue into the fifth-year anniversary of 9/11. You may even some stories that try to tie the two together (holy tongue twister!!).
Separate events, related events. Anniversaries aren’t news, but they are news. Because they are a way of marking time, and a chance to see what’s happened and what hasn’t happened. There’s an implicit public-policy component to both these anniversaries, an accounting if you will.
Close readers of OTTERBLOG will remember a post from a few weeks back called Naming Names. It discussed naming conventions and the disagreement about what to call Mumbai/Bombay.
Today, the Associated Press, arbiter of style for many American newspapers, issued this bulletin:
An AP Stylebook entry has been updated:
Editor’s Note: Changes in AP style, reflecting names as used by the Indian government that have gained favor internationally and in everyday speech.
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Mumbai
India\’s largest city, formerly known as Bombay. (Also, Chennai, formerly Madras.)
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Big organizations can and do change, although often it seems that change can be glacial. Good for the AP to catch up with the times. Next up for the AP, getting rid of the N.C. after Charlotte in datelines and usage.
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