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Its time for the Associated Press and the New York Times to join the rest of us

The Online News Association met this past week. As you might expect, they tweeted a lot. When Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Jose Vargas was at the podium Sept. 21 giving the keynote speech, a veritable social media storm erupted.

Its time we retire the word and the term illegal immigrant in referring to people. It is not only an inhumane term it is a political term, it is an unfair term, it is an inaccurate term, said Vargas. Himself an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines, Vargas called particularly on the New York Times and the Associated Press to change their stylebooks to a less politicized term.

The majority of responses from journalists we tracked on Twitter, responded to Vargas challenge cautiously, or refuted contention that undocumented was a less politically charged term.

Robert McMillan, a journalist from New Jersey who writes for Reuters, tweeted: I always thought undocumented was equally politicized. But maybe Im wrong.

Mike Roe, a journalist from L.A., tweeted: Agreed on it being an equally if not more politicized term at this point.

Vargas comments, and the hubbub surrounding it, prompted a restatement of the New York Times editorial stance by Phil Corbett, associate managing editor for standards, in an interview with Poynter. We do think the phrases 'illegal immigrants' and 'illegal immigration' are accurate, factual and as neutral as we can manage under the circumstances, Corbett said.

Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times Public Editor wrote a blog post about it Sept. 24, and issued an invitation for the public to comment about it.

It is interesting, if infuriating, to see this conversation so delayed in the New York Times. We, along with our fellow members of the Latino press, have long urged the Associated Press and all mainstream media to join with the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in changing their stylebooks and dropping the i-word. Neither media bellwether has seen fit to do so.

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Dropping the i-word