[USMA:41141] RE: Associated Press Style Guide is working against us.

[brian]

Everyone has.   Well, anyone who does publishing for a living.   Certainly, it's time for the AP to change their guides.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [USMA:41140] RE: Associated Press Style Guide is working
against us.
From: "Carleton MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, June 16, 2008 9:20 pm
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>

Who made the AP the dictator of writing style?

Carleton

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-usma@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-usma@colostate.edu] On Behalf
Of Michael Palumbo
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 18:20
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:41135] Associated Press Style Guide is working against us.

I met a nice young lady over the weekend who is a reporter for the
Burlington County Times in southern New Jersey. She informed me, during
the course of our discussion, that she must write in English/Customary
units, as metric is not allowed by the AP style guides.

I asked if she could send me some text of it, here's what I just
received from her.

"Hey Mike,

This is from the 2007 AP stylebook, you have to be a member to search
the online version:

For U.S. members, use metric terms only in situations where they are
universally accepted forms of measurement (16 mm film) or where the
metric distance is an important number in itself: "He vowed to walk 100
kilometers (62 miles) in a week."



Seems even if reporters wanted to write in metric, they couldn't, or
their editors would have to change it to get it run by the AP.

Ideas?

-Mike