Tapper: 'The Chyron Was Abhorrent'

Chyron (“a caption superimposed over usually the lower part of a video image, as during a news broadcast”) spiked in lookups after CNN drew criticism for airing a chyron the show's host, Jake Tapper, called "abhorrent."

CNN host slams network’s ‘abhorrent’ ‘If Jews Are People’ chyron.
—Entertainment Weekly (ew.com), 21 Nov. 2016

The issue Twitter users had, however, was with the chyron at the bottom of the screen throughout the segment, which read: "Alt-right founder questions if Jews are people."
—Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Nov. 2016

Hey @CNN. 1. You gotta call alt-right what it is - white supremacist. 2. Just b/c some idiot says it doesn't mean you put it on the chyron. https://t.co/HyvPMmjnWe

— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal) November 21, 2016

Dear CNN,

You chose THAT as the chyron?

Really?

Seriously, WTF is wrong with you? pic.twitter.com/ZXUkFz6y5O

— Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) November 21, 2016

.@cnn there was a problem with your chyron but I fixed it pic.twitter.com/TPCMqfs0bD

— Tim Maly (@doingitwrong) November 22, 2016

The word is a proprietary term, and was trademarked by the Chyron Corporation in 1976 (the company is now known as ChyronHego), as a term for the crawling or stationary text that appears at the bottom of a television screen during a broadcast.

Chyron (which may be commonly found written with either a lower-case or an upper-case initial C) appears to be joining the ranks of many trademarked words which have moved into the realm of generic use (google, xerox, granola and heroin are a few of the others which have made a similar transition).

Trend Watch tracks popular lookups to see what people are talking about. You can always see all Trend Watch articles here.