Next Stop Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

From one of the Poynter Institute's weekly emails, the one called E-Media Tidbits.

Posted by Amy Gahran 4:49:35 PM

Stupid Filter Tricks: OneNewsNow

tysongay.net Tyson Gay, world-class sprinter. Accept no substitutes.

Today, Mary Ann Akers reports in her Sleuth blog on WashingtonPost.com that OneNewsNow, a site run by the conservative Christian American Family Association, has been having some issues with its filter. Specifically, when it published a June 29 Associated Press article about sprinter Tyson Gay, the site's automated filter substituted "homosexual" for almost every occurrence of "Gay."

...Which led to hilarious absurdities, such as:

"Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has.

"His time of 9.68 seconds at the U.S. Olympic trials Sunday doesn't count as a world record, because it was run with the help of a too-strong tailwind. Here's what does matter: Homosexual qualified for his first Summer Games team and served notice he's certainly someone to watch in Beijing.

"'It means a lot to me,' the 25-year-old Homosexual said. 'I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me.'"