They should not occur in stories or headlines. At times, deletion of an expletive will change the context of a paraphrased statement or fail to indicate a person's intended attitude. However, any exception to this general policy must be approved by a senior news executive. We want to avoid demeaning slang, especially racial, ethnic or religious slurs. When it is deemed essential to convey that a person used vulgar language, our style is to print the first letter of the word, followed by hyphens in place of missing letters.
Wire stories are subject to the same scrutiny as local ones.
Care should also be taken to avoid publication of photos of a salacious nature when they have no news value.