Here’s a rare Media Glass House column where our bitter, washed-up, old hacks are totally unsure whether a journo has done the right or wrong thing. In other words, maybe they’ve made no mistake at all? Yes, we know! We are generally so pedantically assured of our positions, right?

Let us explain. The most recent The Sun-Herald had a yarn by reporter Linda Morris about a prominent Russia and Vladimir Putin critic Masha Gessen, a US-based journalist who spoke recently at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

As you can see from above and below, Morris disclosed in the second paragraph of her piece that Gessen goes by “them” and “they” pronouns.

We at the MGH and The Bug generally knew bugger-all about Gessen, so we looked him (or should that be them) up and, yes, there’s a reason why he (they?) goes/go by “them” and “they” pronouns. He (they) is/are indeed someone who regards himself (themself) as non-binary and is indeed transitioning at present.

But our basic question to which we readily admit we have no answer is simply this: was Morris obliged to follow Gessen’s lead – as he makes that commendable and gutsy journey – for the entire article as shown below.

Before we go on, here’s a little explanation about why papers use “them” or “they” or similar. Some time ago – last millennium perhaps? – newspapers decided that “them” and “they” and “their” were fair game for use when the sex of a person being written about was unknown and “he or she” and his or her” were too long.

Example: The motorist crashed into a tree and they were taken to hospital. A little awkward perhaps but as we explained above, it became acceptable a long time – yonks even – ago.

Back to the Herald yarn. We have no idea why Morris jettisoned normal writing practice at the paper – we foolishly think the Herald might still have a style guide booklet – and used “they” and “them” instead or “he” and “him”.

Perhaps Geesen made it a condition of the yarn that it had to follow his “them” and “they” lead, but seeing we’re not anywhere near as nice as Morris, we might have told him that if he wanted his powerful arguments against Russia and Putin publicised, he’d just have to cop how we wrote the story.

For example, we might have just used his surname in the singular to make the article less clunky?

Have you BUGgers out there got a view on this?

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