How A "C-Word" Becomes A [C-Word]

The Guardian's ombudsman examines the paper's use of profanity: "'Fuck', for instance, has made an appearance 470 times this year already, and the more taboo C-word has cropped up in 61 items. These profanities are more frequent in the culture and music sections than elsewhere and they nearly always appear, in speech marks, when someone else's words are reported. The Guardian's editorial code says: 'There is almost never a case in which we need to use a swearword outside direct quotes.' Complaints about inappropriate language usually concern breaches of this part of the code in columns written by contributors, but the front-page C-word story, on 25 July, which reported [...]
