Back in the day, the two major wire services (that’d be UPI and the AP, sonny) got together and issued a consolidated style book. They agreed on things like tricky spellings and usage and correct form for datelines. Each service went a little beyond the basics, though. The UPI Stylebook was studded with entries such as:
burro, burrow: A burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the ground. As a journalist, you are expected to know the difference.
That one never made it into the AP version, which is about all you need to know about the difference between UPI and the AP.
Except for this: for years, the AP book was titled “The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.” It doesn’t take a genius to read that at least two different ways. So I mourned just a little today when I saw that the latest edition — two years old now — is called “The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law.”
