The New York Times has decided to drop its signature honorific style for coverage of Osama Bin Laden's death.
That's right: no "Mr. Bin Laden."
Here's the internal memo sent to staffers at 4:15 a.m. (via Romenesko) relaying executive editor Bill Keller's decision:
From: Jolly, Tom
Date: May 2, 2011 4:15:37 AM EDT
To: [REDACTED]
Subject: Two style decisions
At Jill and Bill’s request, we dropped the honorific for Bin Laden.
Without a “Mr.” in front of his name, it was decided that we should capitalize the “B” in Bin Laden on second references.
Thanks.
–
Tom Jolly
Associate Managing Editor / Night News
The New York Times
212-556-7197
http://twitter.com/tomjolly
http://facebook.com/Jolly.nytimes
http://nytimes.com