The press
Fuck in the press
Every newsroom has a rule about the word, and almost no two rules agree. The choices, from printing it in full to "an expletive", tell you a great deal about who the paper thinks it is talking to.
Britain
| Outlet | Policy |
|---|---|
| The Guardian / Observer | Prints it in full when quoting or when the writer has a reason. The style guide says asterisks are "a cop-out" and that the paper should "use it only when necessary, and never gratuitously"; in practice it is by some distance the most fuck-heavy quality paper in the world. |
| The Times, Telegraph, FT | Asterisks (f***) or "the F-word", occasionally in full in features and reviews. |
| Independent, i | In full where relevant, asterisked in news. |
| Sun, Mirror, Mail, Express | Asterisks, always. The Grundy episode gave the Mirror its most famous headline without printing the word once. |
| BBC News | Normally "f***" or "swore"; in full only rarely and after editorial referral. On air, after the watershed with a warning. |
| Private Eye, Viz | In full, with relish. |
America
The New York Times almost never prints it, preferring "an expletive", "a vulgarity" or a description ("an obscene suggestion"). Its report of Cheney's remark to Leahy called it "an obscenity". The Associated Press Stylebook advises against obscenities "unless they are part of direct quotations and there is a compelling reason for them", with the first letter and hyphens (f---) where they are used. The Washington Post has printed it in full on rare occasions, always in quotation. The New Yorker has printed it since the 1990s; Rolling Stone, Vice, Slate and most online outlets print it freely. American local newspapers and television almost never do, and the divide between "legacy" and "digital native" media on this word is stark.
The devices
- Asterisks: f*** or f**k. Introduced by Grose in 1785 and never improved on. Everyone reads the word; nobody has to see it.
- The dash: f— or f---. Victorian and American.
- "The F-word": 1950s onwards; also Ramsay's programme title and, with a different first word, a standard headline pun.
- "Expletive deleted": from the Nixon transcripts, 1974.
- "An expletive" / "a vulgarity" / "an obscenity": the Times-style paraphrase.
- Grawlix: the cartoonist's string of symbols (@#$%!), named by Mort Walker in 1964.
- "Effing": spoken asterisks.
Headlines
British sub-editors have made a minor art of implying the word without printing it. "The Filth and the Fury" (Mirror, 1976) is the classic, and the Sun's "Up Yours Delors" (1990) is the two-finger version. The Guardian's readers' editor has noted more than once that complaints about the word are outnumbered by complaints about asterisks.
Broadcasting and the apology
Ofcom's code requires a broadcaster that transmits the word live before the watershed to take "appropriate action", which in practice is a prompt on-air apology. The regulator counts complaints about offensive language separately, and the word is the single largest category. Britain has therefore developed a genre: the breakfast presenter's brisk "apologies if you heard any bad language there", delivered roughly weekly.