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Important lesson for anyone publishing on the web: Be careful with your file names. Earlier this week, Gawker prodded a Senate candidate for embedding the words “yellow girl” in the HTML code for a race-baiting campaign ad. And now a newspaper is in trouble for using a file name to call the president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, a bitch.
The Penguin News, a newspaper in the Falkland Islands, reported this week that Kirchner was getting ready to complain to the United Nations about what she sees as Britain’s militarization of the islands. The paper uploaded a photo accompanying the story and named the file “perra” — female dog. (The file name has since been altered.)
When readers discovered this, which anyone could easily to by right-clicking on the photo (try it out on this post), outrage poured in. The Guardian writes that 2,000 readers responded — and the paper only has a circulation of 1,500. The paper’s editor, Lisa Watson responded to the outrage by tweeting that her staff members “have a naughty sense of humor.”
That might sound obnoxiously flippant, but consider that Watson herself is a frequent target of slurs from readers. She told the Guardian:
I receive threats and insults via our work email address and on Twitter. The threats I try not to take seriously, particularly as the individuals tend to sign their name and even offer ‘besos’ (kisses) after claiming they are coming to the Falklands and their first task will be to kill me. Mainly I am referred to as a prostitute, liar, thief and pirate – other words I really wouldn’t like to mention.
In that light, a disrespectful file name doesn’t sound so bad. But is it crazy to hope that someday we’ll stop calling each other bitches altogether?
Is unacceptable that the Argentine President be called with inappropriate words by the Penguin News just because of her gender: female. The newspaper had the option to select other words if they disagree on the issue of claiming the islands.