Are you frakking kidding me? Hearst Connecticut Media Group briefly banned the use of the word “fracking” in their website comments section, not realizing that fracking, a form of drilling for natural gas, does not equal frakking, a widely-used Battlestar Galactica-inspired curse word substitute.
The initial ban came about because, according to HCMG executive producer Brett Mickelson in an e-mail to a frakking supporter (ha ha) who questioned the ban:
Sadly, many of our users attempt to exploit a perfectly legitimate word as a replacement for it’s [sic] more vulgar cousin. As a result, we have been forced to block its usage. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I hope you understand.
After environmental activist Sharon Wilson wrote a blog post calling HCMG out on their apparently shady tactic of banning discussion on the highly controversial topic of fracking, Mickelson sent her an e-mail explaining that “I wish a certain segment of our audience was mature enough to be trusted with words that bear a vague resemblance to a less savory vocabulary, but that isn’t the world in which we live.”
Even then, he didn’t realize “fracking” and “frakking” are two different things! I wonder who it was who pulled him aside and told him.
The ban was eventually lifted, with Mickelson sending a second e-mail to Wilson that the whole thing “was a technical issue tied to anti-profanity screening. It has been fixed to allow the word ‘fracking’ to appear in our comments section. It was never a policy here or elsewhere at Hearst.
Ohhh, Brett Mickelson. I don’t know whether I want to slap you or hug you.
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