You always Capitalize Titles

[johnnypenn]

The House of Reresentatives
The White House
Democrats
Republicans
Liberals
The Tea Party

So, I am reading this article - http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/are-the-tea-party-s-15-minutes-up--20110805
and someone said that they didn't like the fact that The New York Times capitalized "Tea Party". *coughADAMBRANDONcough*

Okay, so this dude aboviously

Comments

[reawakening2010]

The tea party is a movement within the Republican party so I can understand Mr. Brandon's objection. Thanks for pointing to the article. It was interesting.

[johnnypenn]

Thank you. It is an interesting article.

It could be a style thing depending on who you are. I just can't deviate because then it'll become a bad habit.

[reawakening2010]

It is also a matter of timing. It is still historically a relatively new movement. So, as time moves on, history will judge it and our language will reflect it. Language is all about communication. The "rules" we choose to observe and the ones we don't also communicate. So, on one level that article is not about grammar. It is about the level of recognition and respect that people are willing to give to the tea party movement at this time. I see them as a divisive intellectually-lacking faction of the Republican party. I am not going to capitalize.

[johnnypenn]

I totally understand what you are saying. I just thought it was a title people called themselves. Kinda of like someone will say they are Democrat or Republican. Those are always capitalized. I understand that some people think that capitalizing something is giving it power. I capitalzie Hitler and Nazie whenever I write those words, mostly because Hitler is a name and you always capitalize names, and I cap "N" on Nazie because it was a political party.

But, at the same time I can see someone not caping the "N" because calling anyone a Nazie is basically an insult. and also it has bad conotations to it and if you don't want people to get that you are giving a sense of power to that party of Hitler's - one could not capitalize it and get away with it.

I know that's a weird example. I'm just trying to say that I totally understand why not capitalizing tea party/Tea Party is acceptable.

and, at least any way I do it, I won't be wrong because it's both right. :)

[purrslink]

While it's true proper nouns are generally capitalized, there actually is debate on "tea party". In 2010, the journalistic standard was that the political party was not capitalized, as Mr. Fischer states here, and it seems like the AP Stylebook has not recognized the term as of 2011 changes. So I think what Mr. Brandon is objecting is that The New York Times is not following proper (aka generally accepted) journalistic format in lower casing "tea party".

With that being said, as the second article points out, the AP Stylebook can be slow on the up take. If the party is around next year, my guess is it will be capitalized. Also, a newspaper can set their own standards for smaller things like this. That is why The New York Times uses Mr, Miss, Ms, and Mrs then someone's last name, as opposed to others that only use last name. :)

[johnnypenn]

Oh well, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for explaining that. I just figured he missed a few hundred English lesson in school.

I really don't care whether or not it's capitalized. I just thought it was silly that the guy made it a big point. Like, that's the only thing he could think of to compalin about rather or not it's capitalized is a moot point to me. I dunno. I kina figured he''d pick something important to complain about instead of a newspaper deciding to capitalize it. TNYT probably had the same question I did and went with what they knew over what politicians view it as.

[purrslink]

It's not really something people argue over unless they're a journalist, really. I'm not sure how many people even know about the AP Stylebook outside of the field. And really, it's not that big of a deal. It doesn't matter if it's capitalized or not, and honestly, most people I know capitalize it since it represents a specific group of people. Generally TNYT is the trendsetter, so they are probably on to something.

Some people just like to complain in order to complain! Especially in the comment sections on news sites. Those places attract trolls like bridges do. xD

[johnnypenn]

Oh yeah...I didn't know TNYT was a trendsetter. That explains that. I didn't mean for my post to be a troll in disguise. I just read that part and was reminded of my English lessons in High School. It just seemed silly to me but I understand his side of things.

I don't comment on news sites for that reason anyway. People say werid stuff and most of the times it just insulting people. Which is why I posted here because I want to have a nice coversation about it.