‘Stepchild’ means something bad
in national media, even Congress
Updated: Saturday, June 13, 2009©2009 CNBCfix
Most terms deemed negative descriptions of people never see the light of day in the mainstream media.
That's not true of "stepchild," a class of people freely used for a putdown.
An explanation follows at the end of these references. But doesn't this list of media organizations and public figures and the terminology they use speak for itself?
Larry Kudlow, CNBC: "...American manufacturing and industry, the stepchild of business."
Ashlee Vance, New York Times: "Despite its stepchild status, the ProCurve business grew..."
Lisa Dillman, Los Angeles Times: "You know, it's the stepchild of the halftime interview..."
Skip Holtz, head football coach, East Carolina University: "We have been viewed as the stepchild ... We're viewed as kind of a second-tier program over here."
Bob Cox, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Once a neglected stepchild of major aerospace corporations..."
Suzanne Muchnic, Los Angeles Times: "Once considered the ugly stepchild of a Eurocentric art world..."
Josh Wicks, goalie, D.C. United: "They will want to beat us like a stepchild..."
Spokane Spokesman-Review editorial: "It’s the ugly stepchild of canola oil..."
Los Angeles Times editorial: "Mexico often has felt like a stepchild of U.S. foreign policy."
Jackie Calmes, Wall Street Journal, and Michael Calderone, Politico.com: "At the Journal, the politics coverage was always the stepchild."
David Leite, New York Times: "Yes, cranberries are the neglected stepchild of the season."
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.): "No longer will we allow mental health to be treated as a stepchild..."
Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas: "It's necessary, for us to thrive in this community, that folks come here and realize that this is not some stepchild. This is a very important place for people..."
Dan Reed, USA Today (via "Good Morning America"): "... raising questions of whether US Airways could be relegated to stepchild status."
Michael Brown, former FEMA director for George W. Bush: "... because this was a natural disaster, that has become the stepchild within the Department of Homeland Security."
U.S. Rep. Carol Maloney (D-N.Y.): "The work is too important to be a stepchild of a larger organization..."
Alice Park, Time magazine: "...as the ugly stepchildren of science."
Ben Smith, Politico.com: "Nevada has emerged as the stepchild of the primary process."
Wim Wiewel, Portland State University president: "One thing is for people to stop feeling that somehow we are a ... neglected stepchild. PSU is a great institution."
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.): Homeland Security treats port security like a "neglected stepchild."
Matt Storin, journalism teacher at University of Notre Dame, former Boston Globe editor: "...the fact that, inevitably, we were going to be the stepchild..."
U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.): "...Hispanic-language media has to be elevated so it is no longer treated as a stepchild..."
Robert Templer, Financial Times: "... which for decades have been the neglected stepchild of the security sector."
Garance Burke, Associated Press: "... lift the reputation of a school once considered the poor stepchild of California's public university system."
Daniel Gross, Newsweek: "It regarded the Web the way many magazines did in the 1990s — and some still do today — as a stepchild, a consolation prize."
Jessica Silver-Greenberg, BusinessWeek: "The newly independent Discover, for years the ugly stepchild of department store Sears and later Morgan Stanley ..."
Cicily Maton, Aequus Wealth Management Resources LLC, Chicago (WSJ): "Second homes have become an ugly stepchild..."
Caroline Smith DeWaal, Center for Science in the Public Interest: "The food safety functions at the FDA have really been the stepchild at the agency."
Robert P. Crease, Newsday: "The first NSLS, a poor stepchild for years..."
Pete Wells, New York Times: "Europe’s odd American stepchild, 'continental' cuisine..."
Danny Mellman, The Gourmet Retailer: "No longer a redheaded stepchild, Spain is the birthplace..."
Sally Field, actress: "...television was the poor stepchild of the motion-picture business."
Armando Salguero, Miami Herald: "... made Beck something of a red-headed stepchild."
Richard Siklos, Fortune editor at large: "...to find a suitable new home for errant stepchild AOL..."
Nick Nunziata, CNN: "... 'Fight Club' could go from being a red-headed stepchild to oft-reprinted DVD ..."
Laura Washington, Chicago Sun-Times: "Chicago State is more than beleaguered. The school has long been a stepchild limping along under the radar..."
Associated Press, reported by CBS News and other Web sites: "... a Bush administration that has treated science as a stepchild."
Diane Macedo, Fox News: "Jessica King seems more like a red-headed stepchild in this competition."
Reed Albergotti, Wall Street Journal: "In Washington, where the Capitals have long been the poor stepchild to football's Redskins ..."
Ricardo Alonso Zaldivar and Brett J. Blackledge, Associated Press: "...where it is sometimes seen as a bureaucratic stepchild..."
Sheldon Brown, Philadelphia Eagles cornerback: "...always been treated like the redheaded stepchild ever since I was drafted."
Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers: "... world's most productive farm country can still consider itself Uncle Sam's neglected stepchild."
Michael Cidoni, Associated Press: " 'American Dad!' has always been the stepchild of 'Family Guy' in terms of viewers and critics."
Tom Horgen, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "In the club scene, country music gets treated like a red-headed stepchild."
Joseph Borich, Washington state China trade diplomat: "Coal is the ugly stepchild nobody wants to take responsibility for."
Eric Arnold, Forbes: "It's the wine industry's silver-haired stepchild."
Liz Gannes, BusinessWeek: "This is what the forgotten stepchild, Google Video..."
Jeff Gordon, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Is Anthony Reyes ... feeling like a red-headed stepchild these days?"
Kevin Williams, Chicago Tribune: "In 1970s America, soccer ... was a red-headed stepchild."
Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press: "Michigan's parks became the orphan stepchild of the state budget..."
Ian Begley, N.Y. Daily News: "Staten Island is the overlooked, under-appreciated, slept-on, stepped-on, stepchild of high school hoops in the city."
Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle: "Approaching Normal is a big album by a big band that has, at times, been treated like a modern-rock stepchild."
John Hartl, Seattle Times: "... its cartoon division was treated like an unworthy stepchild."
David Roberts, Huffington Post: "The Red-Headed Stepchild of the Energy Family."
Larry Brooks, New York Post: "We're told ESPN, which did in fact treat the NHL like an unwanted stepchild..."
Nicole Sandler, radio host: "WINZ was the ugly stepchild of the Clear Channel cluster."
Danny White, coach of Arena Football League Utah Blaze: "We've been kind of the unwanted stepchild since the start of the season, really."
To anyone who has been a stepchild or a stepparent: CNBCfix is sorry that you had to see these references. Nearly all are from 2008-09, a handful from 2003-07; all readily accessible on the organizations' Web sites. CNBCfix believes it important to show how the term "stepchild" is used by America's media organizations and members of Congress.
It is not the position here that the names above are bad people.
At least some of them are very powerful, very talented. Look at the daily print media organizations listed. In general, one cannot reach those levels without being a skilled reporter with years of training.
Daily print newspapers are constantly challenged by relevancy and sensitivity issues in their coverage. Mostly, they're good at dealing with them. That is respected.
This is a lapse, a serious hole in their game that needs to be addressed.
Some may note there is a massive universe of news media articles and, against that backdrop, very few contain this terminology. Except the references above are from elite, highly edited material. And in hours of research of news reports, never once was the term "stepchild" found to be used in a positive way, unless obituary references to survivors are included.
Who has "stepchild" status? People like Barack Obama ... Bill Clinton ... Abraham Lincoln.
One writer listed above — e-mail is 100% confidential here — responded to this inquiry. It was a professional, courteous reply. It does not pass the logic test by any means and suggests the extent of use of this term is even worse than it seems.
This writer, incredibly, defended using "stepchild" because it referred to "an afterthought," or something "far less important."
But instead of using "afterthought" or "far less important," the writer defaulted to clever mode and we got "stepchild."
It is healthy for writers to defend their work. In all likelihood, this writer, thinking about this subject without provocation, will someday conclude, "why did I write that, it's terminology that makes no sense."
Only one other news organization contacted responded to an inquiry about the statements on this page.
No one needs to take a fall here. Newspaper and magazine people are under serious stress of layoffs, pay cuts, company survival issues. But perfecting one's craft under duress is a sign of the highest standards of professionalism. Managing editors and/or copy desk chiefs could just add at the end of their next staff memo, "some Web site out in the middle of nowhere makes a point — make sure 'stepchild' really belongs in a story before we print it."
There will be no celebrating here, only a small satisfaction in perhaps being part of a much-needed improvement.
Or do we just let all of the above quotes speak for themselves?
This article was originally posted May 20, 2009. It continues to be updated.