Not PC enough to work for the AP

By Ethel C. Fenig

Uh oh. The Associated Press (AP), which has become so politically correct that according to James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal they have assigned 11 reporters to fact check the 432 pages of Sarah Palin's book. This means each reporter has 39.3 pages to authenticate. But they only assigned 2 investigative reporters to drill through the 4,064 pages of the multi Obamacare bills giving each reporter 2,032 pages to study.

The AP reporter, Samantha Critchell described the stunning dress Michelle Obama wore to the president's first state dinner as "a gleaming silver-sequined, flesh-colored gown."

Flesh-colored?! Flesh-colored?? Whose flesh? Certainly not Ms. Obama's, who looked lovely as her darker flesh contrasted nicely with the lighter "flesh-colored" gown. Certainly not the color of the designer Naeem Khan's flesh or of the guests of honor Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur all of whom were born in India and whose flesh is darker than that "flesh-colored" gown. And even though I'm classified as Caucasian/white (although I prefer the more accurate, Other) not quite the color of my pale, colorless flesh.

"Flesh-colored," as used by Ms. Critchell, seems to imply that real flesh is only one color; the remaining wide palette of multiple shades and skin tones deviate from the norm. Nope. Michelle Obama's flesh, Khan's, the Singhs' and mine are all "flesh-colored"; doesn't the AP stylebook know that?

Politically incorrect me would have boringly called the color of the dress pale beige or off white; had I been writing a fashion or style column I might have also used such flowery adjectives as cream colored, eggshell, shimmering sand, morning mist, dawn, pearl...

But that's probably why I don't work for AP; I'm not pc.