The New York Daily News published a story today on the incredibly shrinking MSNBC host Al Sharpton. It involved Sharpton’s dramatic weight loss over the past 15 years. Today he weighs a shockingly skinny, nearly emaciated 129 pounds.

But one phrase they couldn’t bring themselves to use as they wrote about the black host and his eating habits was “fried chicken.”

Hey overly sensitive news editors! It’s not racist to say a man who happens to be black ate a lot of fried chicken if that’s, in fact, what he did — for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

They do say he allows himself the rare treat of watermelon juice.

But take a gander at this:

“Around six years ago, Sharpton cut out red meat. A year later, he did away with chicken — no small feat for a guy who ate fried fowl three times a day (with grits and eggs for breakfast and on a sandwich in the afternoon, plus a half-chicken for dinner).”

Seriously, FRIED FOWL?

Come on, it’s not like you’re Bloomberg Politics and you’ve paired a half black President of the United States with a picture of fried chicken to promo a story about President Obama‘s chef.

Relax, it’s fried chicken. You can say it.

You’re New York City. You’re supposed to be better and braver than this.