How the media does and doesn't 'ID' Independent Lieberman
Brian Beutler
Published:
Wednesday January 31, 2007
 In the cliffhanger world of news copy and style manuals, perhaps nothing matters more than consistency. Even extreme grammatical eccentricities are fine, as long as they occur regularly. The New Yorker magazine may spell a word like "re-elected" without the hyphen and with an umlaut over the second "e," but they do it every time.
Senator Joe Lieberman appears to have left the once-consistent system in tatters, though. Lieberman, who won re-election (or is it reëlection) in Connecticut as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary, now must be classified separately from the Democratic peers he will be caucusing with.
His office confirmed to RAW STORY today that he prefers the rendering "ID" for "Independent Democrat", but said there’s "not particularly" been any effort by his office to convince newspapers one way or another.
And it shows.
Back when times were simpler and Lieberman was a Democrat, there were only a handful of ways one might read his party affiliation in print: "(D-CT)" or "(D-Conn.)" or, if you extrapolate from this Reuters' feed, "Connecticut Democrat."
Now even The New York Times can’t get it straight. In an article which ran on Jan. 30, 2007, Carl Hulse and Tom Shanker described Lieberman as, "Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut."
But the same day, that newspaper’s own Adam Nossiter, in an article about the Homeland Security Committee’s Hurricane Katrina hearings in Louisiana, wrote simply, "The senators, including the panel’s chairman, Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, voiced little criticism of Mayor C. Ray Nagin or other local officials, and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana was not on the witness list."
Of course, these authors could be involved in brinksmanship with Times reporter Michael R. Gordon, who, days earlier, decided to use the more spare, "Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut." In this instance, the "I." stands not for Independent, but for Lieberman's middle name: Isadore.
The New York Times did not return RAW STORY’s request for comment on the Lieberman style inconsistencies before press time.
On the other hand, the Associated Press either has no consistency on the Lieberman question, or allows papers that subscribe to its wire service to modify their format.
Jim Drinkard, AP’s assistant Washington bureau chief for news noted to RAW STORY that, "We're calling him I-CT in our shorthand, and an independent (lower-case i) in the copy."
That explanation may be true, but it doesn't necessarily explain the below image.
When asked whether the labeling in the photo was written by the copy desk at the Chicago Sun Times, where RAW STORY found the image, Drinkard added, "We are consistent as far as I know. The photo desks as well as the news desks have been advised of the policy. Not sure how to explain the Sun-Times example. And I misstated it earlier; it's I-Conn., in accordance with our Stylebook."
After interviewing him, the Wall Street Journal's Kimberely Strassel noted that, "Mr. Lieberman is now officially an 'independent,' yet he takes care to describe himself as an 'independent Democrat.'"
Which does not neccesarily mean that Wall Street Journal staffers use Lieberman's prefered expression. Yesterday, reporter Ian Talley wrote, "Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who usually votes Democratic." In the very same paragraph, however, he referred to Sen. Jeff Bingaman as "Sen. Jeff Bingaman, (D., N.M.)."
And today, Journal reporter John D. McKinnon got technical and escaped without specifying the senator's party affiliation: "Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee."
Lieberman’s website refers to him as (ID)—or "Independent Democrat”.
"Some papers can’t use 'ID,'" a Lieberman aide told RAW STORY, adding that simply referring to him as an "independent" is in fact correct.
And, according to Google News, at least, it's more common as well:
Hits as of today for "Lieberman (ID-CT)": 5.
Hits as of today for "Lieberman (ID-Conn.)": 9.
Hits as of today for "Lieberman (I-CT)": 34.
Hits as of today for "Lieberman (I-Conn.)": 1528.
(Additional research on this article by RAW STORY's Ron Brynaert)
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