Conservatives had quite a bit of fun with a Reno Gazette-Journal article that was originally headlined:

Fluke Takes Center Stage In Reno

The caption for the photo of Fluke that ran underneath the headline but before the copy said:

Sandra Fluke, a social justice advocate and campaign surrogate for Democratic President Barack Obama, speaks in Reno on Saturday.

Now, it turns out that taking "center stage" in Reno means that 10 (ten!) people showed up in the parking lot of the Sak 'N' Save in North Reno to hear her. Ten. Yes, the star of such puff pieces as the Washington Post's recent hagiography ("Sandra Fluke isn't finished testifying") drew a crowd of 10 people and the local paper promoted it in advance and headlined it as if to suggest the event was quite successful. This was why so many people noticed the less-than-stellar journalism of the Reno News-Gazette.

I didn't even bother with the silly Post piece -- it ran in their progressive cultural issues advocacy section called "Style." But my favorite part was that it called the woman, who in her prime time Democratic National Convention speech accused Rep. Paul Ryan of trying to kill women (and I don't mean figuratively!), "independent." Isn't that the word to use to describe Democratic partisans hoping other people will be forced against their religious objections to pay for birth control they oppose? I think it is, obviously, and good on the Washington Post for figuring out the right word in the piece to explain how Fluke was about to embark on this awesome campaign tour for President Barack Obama. Hurray! Journalism! (To be fair, I did learn some things from the praise piece, even religion-related news, such as that Fluke is the daughter of a Methodist minister.)

Anyway, rather than focus on the "takes center stage" part of the headline, which was changed at some point, or the rather tendentious language in the copy of the piece, I want to focus on something someone else picked up on. The Gannett paper there in Reno describes Fluke as a "social justice" advocate.

What does that mean? I mean, she's known for almost nothing other than advocating for forced birth control subsidies and abortion on demand. How is that "social justice"? And why not just call her an advocate for government mandated birth control subsidies? Why the euphemism? Why the lack of clarity?

But even more than that, "social justice" is a term with specifically Roman Catholic connotations. That it would be used to describe a woman who specifically enrolled at a Jesuit law school with the express purpose of upending the school's policy against subsidizing students' birth control is odd, no? Her entire fame is due to her work against Catholic teaching in practice. I think journalists can pick a better term -- and hopefully avoid the incorrect euphemism -- here.

"Social justice" is a non-neutral term on a good day. It suggests that people who believe in achieving the same means in a different manner are for social "injustice." We'd be wise to avoid the term in general. But it really should not be used to describe a woman whose entire fame is based on fighting on behalf of the federal government against Catholic charities and other religious groups.