Full apology from journalist who wrote offensive Asbury Park Press caption

[TexasTowelie]

The journalist who lost his job with the Asbury Park Press after posting an offensive caption last month has offered a full apology.

Gustavo Martinez Contreras had added a caption to a photograph of an Orthodox Jewish nurse preparing to administer a COVID-19 vaccination that called her “a fucking hot nurse, a total JAP.”

Paul D’Ambrosio, the newspaper’s executive editor, said the caption was written by “a reporter who admitted that he did a ‘stupid, stupid thing,” but had not named the employee. He did say that the person, identified by the New Jersey Globe as Martinez, had been fired.

Going forward, D’Ambrosio said, “no photo and caption will be published without another staffer looking it over, regardless of the time of day.”

Read more: https://newjerseyglobe.com/media/full-apology-from-journalist-wrote-wrote-offensive-asbury-park-press-caption/

[Journeyman]

1. First thing I learned in journalism: Never put anything in type you don't want to see in print . . .

Make jokes, add irreverent commentary, bare your soul for all the newsroom to see -- but never put it down where it can be picked up and put on press.

Idiot. He'd deserve to lose his job if he just verbally aired those thoughts. There in cold-type, hot off the press, he's lost any further journalism aspirations he may have entertained.

[SoCalDavidS]

2. In New Jersey, No Less

Not like it was in say North Dakota or Wyoming. A highly inappropriate comment involving Jews. IN NEW JERSEY. Less than an hour drive outside of New York City.

And let's not overlook the first part of the caption. You know, the less offensive part of what was published. "A Fucking Hot Nurse?" That's appropriate to put in a newspaper with a public circulation?

As if the newspaper industry doesn't already have enough problems on their hands, does this newspaper have a death wish? I'm sure Bruce would be ashamed.

[TheBlackAdder]

6. There are a lot of white supremacists in NYC and NJ, esp. on Staten Island.

.

There is a big KKK contingent around Exit 8. North Western NJ, South NJ. Hell, they're all over.

NJ is about 45% Republican, and many of them follow the Trump Train.

.

[SoCalDavidS]

9. Yeah, I Forget That NJ Voted In Christie Repeatedly nt

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. So I had to look up what the acronym stood for ... taken as a whole, the gist SOUNDS complimentary

Obviously totally inappropriate for a newspaper publication, but I feel like if someone wrote those words about me, with the last word in the male format ... I'd be inclined to take it quite well. Mine would start with a Y though, for Yugoslavian. And I'd be programmer instead of a nurse of course.

I'm sure there's something I don't know about though.

That happens occasionally.

[TexasTowelie]

4. I suggest looking up the term in the Urban Dictionary.

It is not a term of affection.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Ah. Okay. Google came up with a Vox article that said ...

"The Jewish American Princess, or JAP, embodies both an attitude and a style of dressing. The archetype was forged in the mid-1950s, in concert with the Jewish-American middle-class ascent."

"JAP is rarely used outside the Jewish world — only by goyim in very Jewish cities, and usually playfully so."

The general gist of the article was not that it is some horrible slur. Article is written by a Jewish girl.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/5/18119890/jewish-american-princess-jap-stereotype

But if you guys say so ...

[TexasTowelie]

7. The first time that I heard the term was on Saturday Night Live.

It didn't have a positive connotation back then either.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. Gotcha. Making a mental note ... terrible slur to never use ...

Should be pretty easy since I'd never heard it before today, and I'm pretty tired right now, so I'll forget it exists by tomorrow.

But if someone wants to put "Super F'in Hot Programmer, total Yugoslavian American Prince" to caption a picture of me, I'm still open to the idea.