NY Times alters policy on ‘Marines’ - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

NY Times alters policy on ‘Marines’

Leathernecks have long found it irksome — heck, they’ve downright hated the fact — that The New York Times has refused to capitalize the “m” in Marine. It’s a point of pride, Marines always argue, to which the Times has routinely replied, “Yeah, but we don’t capitalize the ‘s’ in soldier.”

Well, the Old Gray Lady has finally come to her senses. In a Feb. 18 blog post titled “When every letter counts,” Deputy News Editor Philip B. Corbett, point man for the newspaper’s style manual, announced that The New York Times has at last decided to join the ranks of Marine Corps Times and countless other publications that adhere to The Associated Press’ longstanding guidance on this matter:

A Marine is a Marine — capital “M,” case closed.

“We heard repeatedly from readers and sources who found our usage puzzling or ill-informed — even … disrespectful,” Corbett wrote. “We’ve assured current and former members of the Marine Corps that the old rule reflected not a lack of respect but rather a desire for consistency.”

Indeed, just as Marines pride themselves on being squared away, The New York Times is a stickler when it comes to syntax. Within its pages, even scoundrels are afforded the courtesy of being referred to as “Mr.” Hitler, McVeigh or bin Laden. So there’s no doubt this decision was made with a lot of hand-wringing.

In the end, Corbett said, it all came back to consistency. “If the term for an individual member is the same as the proper name of the organization, why not capitalize ‘Marine’ just as we capitalize ‘Democrat,’ ‘Catholic’ or ‘Rotarian’?” he reasoned. “Consistency is a virtue. But stubbornness isn’t, and we’re willing to consider revisions when a good case can be made.”