NY Times changes Wordle answer over "fraught word"

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File

When the New York Times purchased Wordle in January, I immediately wondered what sort of changes would take place with the game. I’ve still never played Wordle or even visited the web page, but I see the results of other people I follow on social media showing up every morning, so it’s clearly quite popular. Despite my misgivings, I mostly ignored the story of the new owners because, after all, it’s just a game, right? I mean, what could the New York Times possibly do to screw up a basic word game? This week we learned the answer to that question. Monday’s edition of the game was pulled shortly after it went live because someone at the Gray Lady realized that the answer to the puzzle was a “fraught word.” Oh, no! What could the editors have put in there? The F-word? The N-word? A slur against Jews or other minorities? Nope. The word they erased was “fetus.” (Associated Press)

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The New York Times moved swiftly to change Monday’s answer to its daily Wordle puzzle out of fear that it would be seen as some sort of commentary on the debate over abortion rights.

The game, which became a sensation late last year and was bought by The Times in January, gives users six tries to guess a different five-letter word each day.

Yet The Times scrambled when it discovered that Monday’s word, which had been entered into Wordle’s computer program last year, was “fetus.”

The paper issued an apology, saying that the appearance of the ‘fraught’ word “was entirely unintentional and a coincidence.” So I’m certainly glad we’ve got that straightened out. Society may have been on the brink of collapse for an hour or so.

I just did a quick check and amazingly the word fetus is still showing up in the dictionary. Fetus: The unborn offspring of a mammal at the later stages of its development, especially a human from eight weeks after fertilization to its birth.

This is apparently where society has arrived in 2022. The unbridled epidemic of leftist madness that is gripping American society has brought us to the point where the supposed newspaper of record is afraid to put the word fetus in a game. Who exactly were they going to offend? Surely even the staunchest pro-abortion activist threatening to burn down the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices would agree that a fetus is a real thing, even if they refuse to call it a baby.

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What other words need to be stricken from future Wordle puzzles? Is someone at the Times currently sorting through all of the upcoming games to make sure that “woman” isn’t a future answer? After all, if you suggest that women are real, God only knows how many people might be triggered. Just ask our pending member of the Supreme Court.

While they’re at it, the Wordle masters might want to make sure that China isn’t an answer as well. How many of their readers would immediately faint from shock at the thought that the solution might be a reference to Hunter Biden’s laptop or other “Russian disinformation?”

The New York Times is officially a caricature of its former role as a leading provider of news. Kowtowing to liberal nonsense such as this should lead anyone to question why potential readers should take the publication seriously.

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