the gray lady calls a DIFFERENT tune

Emedia Professional, May, 1999 by Dana J. Parker

"More than illness or death, the American journalist fears standing alone against the whim of his owners or the prejudices of his audience. Deprive William Satire of the insignia 0f The New York Times, and he would have a hard time selling his truths to a weekly broadsheet in suburban Duluth."

--Lewis H. Lapham

for as long as compact disc technology has been in existence, its name has been misspelled. You know it's compact disc, not disk, and so do I--all one has to do, after all, is take a glance at the logo on any disc or drive. That so many computer and mainstream publications undermine their credibility by persistently and deliberately misspelling the name of such a widely used technology is one of my personal betes-noires.

It's possible, I suppose, that most people--even most people who read computer magazines--don't notice the error. But the telltale "disk" used in reference to optical media is a red flag to any self-respecting platterhead. In the words of Jim Taylor, author of DVD Demystified, "Every time I read an article talking about `digital versatile disks,' I snort contemptuously and lower my expectations of accuracy for anything reported. I know I'm not alone. This may be a condescending attitude, but that's the way it is, especially since experience has proven that it's an excellent measure of an author's understanding of the topic."

I couldn't agree more. The rules are reasonable and straightforward: optical discs are spelled with a "c", magnetic disks are spelled with a "k". The distinction between the optical "c" and the magnetic "k" not only honors the intentions of the technology's developers--who should be allowed to name their creations as they darn well please--it shows that the writer knows the difference, and helps the reader keep them straight.

heresy

The worst offenders of this rule are also the most tenacious and unreasoning in their resistance to correction. A chronic co-complainer about "disc with a k" errors, Craig Hanson of Makami Systems, received this response to a letter to the editor of PC Magazine: "We've spent a lot of time and ink revisiting this question since the time, early in our history, we published a flail-page editorial explaining our decision to use `disk' everywhere. The New York Times and some other publications use `disk' in all contexts, as we do. Some publications stick with `disc' in all cases."

This email response, forwarded by Hanson to others of the platterhead persuasion, elicited a torrent of arguments for the correct spelling of disc, including EMedia's own contention that PC Magazine was looking the wrong way up the specificity scale for expertise in CD nomenclature. Some examples:

* "In the case of a `Compact Disc,' dictionaries and The New York Times be damned. I have never seen the words `compact disk' written on any legitimate disc, drive, recorder or jewel case."

* "I realized long ago that [computer magazines] were going to follow the lead of The New York Times ... and I still wonder who should be the authorities on the matter. I find it rather incredible that anyone could dare think it should be those who write about technologies rather than those who manufacture and use them."

* "The New York Times and some other publications do use `disk' in all contexts as you do. They are wrong too. If the Times printed acronyms such as PCMCIA and HTML with periods separating the letters, would you follow them off of that cliff as well?"

contrition

At last, the beleaguered PC Magazine editor succumbed to the pressure, hinting that PC Magazine would indeed reconsider its all-disk, all-the-time policy, starting in 1999. Apparently, this was only a diversionary tactic because it hasn't happened. The March 9, 1999 issue of PC Magazine yields this gem: "We performed our evaluations using movies such as Twister and the test disk [sic] that accompanies Jim Taylor's book DVD Demystified." I can almost hear Jim's contemptuous snort.

The editors at PC Magazine--and others who follow the Times' lead--practice the journalistic version of the computer industry cliche: "You can't get fired for buying IBM." The joyous news is that they are about to hear from on high what they ignored from below.

Wrote the Times' own Peter H. Lewis in a recent email, "All of us at the NYT are subject to the guidelines of The New York Times Stylebook, which decrees that we shall write jini and 43d Street and Mr. Clinton and, yes, compact disk. But as fate would have it, the new Stylebook (the first in my 17 years at the NYT) comes out this week and forevermore it shall be compact disc." Lewis also graciously provided the actual passage from the as-yet unpublished revision of The New York Times Stylebook:

disc, disk. Use disc in references to phonograph records (disc jockey, discography), optical and laser-based devices (compact disc, laserdisc, videodisc), farm implements (disc harrow) and brakes (disc brake). Use disk in references to the magnetic storage devices used with computers (floppy disk, hard disk) and to the fiber and cartilage between the vertebrae (slipped disk). See diskette.