New York Times censors today’s Wordle answer because of current events

metro.co.uk:

Today’s Wordle solution has been removed at the last minute because The New York Times thinks it could be seen as too political.

Wordle famously has enough puzzles to last at least seven years without repeating them, but what many don’t realise is that this means all the answers were already added to the game last year – nobody is sitting around picking the next one each day.

The New York Times does check them to make sure they’re not too hard or too rude though and apparently it also looks to see whether they might be awkwardly topical, as is the case today.

We won’t spoil what the answer is until after the ad below, so be careful if you haven’t tried today’s puzzle yet – especially as it’s one with an alternative American spelling.

Rather than the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or any kind of worldwide event, the answer to today’s Wordle relates to leaked reports that the US Supreme Court plans to overturn a 50-year-old judgement legalising abortion across the whole country.

Abortion has always been a hot political issue in the US, especially in Republican states, and so The New York Times has decided that having today’s Wordle answer be FETUS is a bit awkward.

They’re so worried about the answer that they’ve taken the unusual step to put up a blog about it, explaining their decision and the fact that some people might still see the original answer even though it’s now been removed.

This is because, as happened the last time there was a double answer, if you haven’t refreshed your browser recently you’ll still get the original puzzle.

‘At New York Times Games, we take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news,’ says The New York Times blog.

‘But because of the