Wall Street Journal to avoid label for Islamic center

The Wall Street Journal is the latest news organization to announce it'll avoid using the oft-repeated phrase "Ground Zero Mosque" when describing Park51, a proposed Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan.

Since May, the news media has routinely used the phrase "Ground Zero Mosque" in headlines, even though the project is actually located two blocks from World Trade Center site.

During this time, everyone from cable hosts to newspaper editors to bloggers helped frame the heated debate by using this shorthand. And some critics, erroneously placing the project within the actual site of Ground Zero, have tried making links to the attacks on September 11.

The Journal's Paul Martin, who writes the paper's Style & Substance blog, described the guidelines on Monday.

"Although the phrase 'Ground Zero mosque' has become ubiquitous in the media, we should avoid the imprecise term whenever possible outside of quoted material," Martin wrote. (The decision follows a discussion between Martin and deputy managing editor Matt Murray).

The Upshot looked two weeks ago at how news organizations were describing Park51 (or Cordoba House, as it was originally named). The New York Times was one of the only major news organizations at the time keeping the phrase out of headlines.

Phil Corbett, the standards editor for the New York Times, told The Upshot that "to call it the Ground Zero Mosque not only would give you the impression that it's on the site of the Trade Center, but it might even give you the further impression that it's part of the rebuilding process to that site."

The Associated Press didn't have a policy at the time. The news organizations had used "Ground Zero Mosque" in some headlines, beginning in late May, and as a journalistic shorthand when sending articles over the wire in recent months.

Three days later, the AP advised staff to no longer using the inaccurate phrase.