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MEDIA MR. MISTER

By Mr. Mike Shropshire |

Do you notice that The Dallas Morning News has a more genteel, polite tone these days? No, they haven’t dropped coverage of boxing matches or City Council meetings. The editorial page hasn’t called for universal disarmament or merging our government with the Soviets.

The big change dates from March 6, when a three-paragraph announcement on page 2A of the paper made it official: the “Mr.” era had begun.

The decision to identify persons of the male gender as “Mr.” on second reference in the news columns grew out of a management retreat featuring such heavyweights as President and Editor Burl Osborne. But much of the flak from those who dislike the change has fallen on Assistant Managing Editor Paula LaRocque. also known as the “writing coach” of the paper. While she was just one of several who cast unanimous votes for the “Mr.” shift, LaRocque admits that she’s happy about the reform.

“Since I arrived at The News, I had been dissatisfied with the policy to assign courtesy titles to women and not men. I didn’t think it was equitable,” says LaRocque. “It was my feeling, as well as others, that dropping courtesy titles would be a bald, rude, and abrupt way to treat people.” she says. Thus it was decided that the “Mr.” alternative would be. as LaRocque says, the “simple, sensible, and graceful” way to solve the issue.

The sports section has been rendered exempt from the “Mr.” edict. “In the case of game stories, we fell it would be awkward to report that “Mr. Abdul-Jabbar passed the ball to Mr. Johnson,’ and so forth,” LaRocque says. Exceptions are also made for some news stories and the rule is less binding in High Profile and Dallas Life Magazine. “We offer that latitude to the writers,” she says, to make the stories flow.

The “Mr.” policy has its quirks. Convicted mass murderer Henry Lee Lucas, for example, would be Mr. Lucas, says LaRocque. But most historical figures wouldn’t receive that courtesy. “Mr. Hitler or Mr Einstein would be ridiculous,” she says.

LaRocque frequently stirs controversy at The News, particularly when she issues negative critiques of various News columnists and reporters in an internal publication that she edits for the paper. Her detractors have resurfaced in the aftermath of the “Mr.” campaign. “Now the paper reads like a wedding invitation.” one reporter complains. Says LaRocque: “Several editors and reporters have told me that they thought this was a step backward and that we made the wrong choice. But the feedback I have received from some other papers in this area, while informal, has been positive and there are indications that this might be the edge of a trend.”

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