AP Provides Inauguration Style Sheet for Media Outlets

The Associated Press has produced a fact sheet
of "essential words, phrases and definitions" to help member news
organizations with their coverage of the second inauguration of President
Barack Obama.

It
includes such handy info as the time of the public swearing-in ceremony (Jan.
21, noon ET). Actually, the President will
already have been sworn in the day before in a private ceremony in the White
House in keeping with noon on Jan. 20 as the
automatic start of the President's second term per the 20th Amendment.

It
also supplies info on how many seats the inauguration platform holds (more than
1.600); a definition of the Capitol Building for those unfamiliar with the
structure ("Domed home of the U.S. House and Senate"); and AP's
general avoidance of the term "I-Day" as shorthand for Inauguration
Day.

AP's
identification of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts includes the
additional info that he "mixed up" the words to the oath of office he
administers, requiring a do-over of the swearing-in in private last time around.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.