As has been bemoaned by dozens of bloggers eager to write dirty words, many obituaries for the late former Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz politely elided the reason he was forced to quit. Butz said, in public: "I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit." (A portion of that quote is also the name of a quite decent late-period Alex Chilton album, whose title was, of course, altered in its American release. Prudes!) Of course, most obits leave out the nastier sides of their subjects, but when a person is famous only for that nasty side, or one specific incident of nastiness, it's shitty, cunty, cocksucking journalism to not mention it.


Booze-soaked former Trotskyite popinjay Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate, is understandably outraged, particularly at the New York Times, who cleaned up Butz's language so much as to make one wonder what the fuss was all about (who doesn't want "satisfying sex"?). Also Hitch is outraged at the Muslims who control Canada. No, really.

Speaking of censoring obituaries, the Columbia Journalism Review tells us of the Des Moines Register's obit for a Mr. Ralph Gross, who wrote an article for CJR about "the state of present-day journalism." The obit fails to mention that said article was specifically about how terrible the Des Moines Register is. Any more egregious examples of obit white-washing? Send them our way.

(For our part, we plan on dying in a fashion so unspeakably filthy that no newspaper on Earth will be able even to allude to it. Feel free to send suggestions for that too.)

Truth and Consequences [Slate]
Rest in Piece [CJR]
Related: I Know Someone Who Really Is One Of Those Slang Words For Ladyparts [Choire SIcha]