The New York Times F-Bomb: Drops Profanity for the Second Time in its History?

The New York Times dropped the F-bomb, in what is suspected as being the second time in the history of its existence, on page 86 of its Aug. 25 issue of its supplement T Magazine.

The magazine featured a story about Jonathan Lethem's latest novel, Dissident Gardens, and used the F-word when excerpting the opening lines from his book:

"Quit f***ing black cops or get booted from the Communist party. There stood the ultimatum, the absurd total of the message conveyed to Rose Zimmer by the cabal gathered in her Sunnyside Gardens kitchen that evening." 

According to Slate, the word appeared in the Times at least once before: in 1998 when the paper published the entire Starr Report in full.The word appeared in a part five passage of that report:

"In a recorded conversation later on October 6, Ms. Lewinsky said she wanted two things from the President. The first was contrition: He needed to '' acknowledge . . . that he helped f**** up my life.' The second was a job, one that she could obtain without much effort: ''I don't want to have to work for this position . . . I just want it to be given to me.'' 

Lethem, unaware of the fact that the most recent instance was the the second time the Times published the profanity, told Salon he was delighted about the fact that his new book provided the publication's first use of the word in print.

In August 2013 the website featured a researched piece about the insane precautionary measures the Times has taken to avoid the usage of the word in the past.