cereal test

n. the judgment of an editor or a producer as to whether (news) material is appropriate to publish or broadcast. Also breakfast test, Wheaties test. Subjects: English, Media

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Citations: 1987 Lou Gelfand Star Tribune (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minn.) (Feb. 8) “Editors were wise to withhold photographs of aborted fetuses” p. 31A: Fleming said those pictures “surely pass the ‘Wheaties’ test,” meaning that one could look at them while eating breakfast. 1991 Mark Guidera Baltimore Sun (Md.) (June 21) “Nudes at 11 is no news in this bureau” p. 10: Running such pictures would not pass that unshakable tenet of the newspaper business: The Breakfast Test. 1991 Mike Foley St. Petersurg Times (Florida) (July 21) “Demi Moore cover photo had people talking” p. 3D: Editors apply what is generically referred to in the newsroom as the “cereal test.” Photos that might upset a reader over breakfast are screened very carefully, and are used only if the subject matter or news value warrants it. 1996 Geneva Overholser Washington Post (July 21) “Ombudsman: Policing the Issue Ads” p. C6: Rosenberg applies what he calls “the breakfast-table test” to any gruesome picture, titillating image or vulgar word. He doesn’t want to make people sick over their cornflakes. 2005 Ryan Pitts Mail Tribune (Jackson County, Ore.) (Jan. 23) “Graphic images: Too much?”: Many journalists invoked the so-called “cereal test,” newsroom slang for a simple question: Would I want my family to see this photo at the breakfast table tomorrow morning?

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