Tennessean newspaper needs to consult styleguide
by Bryce Martin

In a Tennessean news story ("Path cleared for Tennessee to execute 1980 Killer," December 1, 2009), reporter Kate Howard details some events that led to a man's murder conviction. The killer shot and killed three people while robbing a grocery store. One was a 12-year-old boy who was working the cash register at his father's store. Howard wrote, "The 12-year-old sold Cokes and snacks... ." So, are we to understand that a grocery store would sell nothing but Cokes when a multitude of soft drinks were on the market then as now. A small grocery store selling only Cokes would greatly hamper its sales possibilities. It's a journalism problem. I blame not Howard but the editors at the Tennessean, if they have any. Coke is a brand name for Coca-Cola. Coke is not a generic word for any soft drink. To spell Coke with a lower case "c" in printed form is incorrect, and in Coca-Cola's opinion, illegal. You still see it in newspapers even though the journalism industry has warned against it for years in its trade periodicals. The next worse thing is to do as Howard did, capitalize it but write it in a way that implies the same thing: That all soft drinks are Cokes, or cokes.
I guess that is the choice of soft drinks today in McNewsrooms.