This TV spot doesn't get my seal of approval

Anyone who follows the news knows that political correctness sometimes runs afoul of common sense.

I remember at one newspaper I worked for you couldn't have the word "lobsterman" in a story as it would offend women, the editor reasoned.

So what did we call them? "Lobster fishers." True story.

I won't name the paper.

But now I think we've gone too far with "animal correctness."

Take a news story on Channel 7 this morning.

The story was about recent shark sightings on Cape Cod.

The story noted in one instance a beach full of people watched "in horror" as a shark fatally bit a seal.

Well, if you know those Geico commercials, you'll know that "if you're a shark, you bite seals."

So would those same people watch "in horror" if they saw a lobster clawing his - or her (don't want to offend the ladies) way into a lobster trap.

"Nooooooooooo, don't go in there. They'll boil or steam you and then - gasp - eat you. Nooooooooo."

Of what if they saw a waterbug darting about a pond.

"Nooooooo, don't go near the water. The big ugly frog will fling out his nasty long tongue and snatch you back into his mouth and - gasp - eat you. Nooooooo."

Or what if ... well, never mind, you get the picture.

Anyways, suffice it to say seals were getting bitten - and eaten - by sharks long before Cape Cod beaches were swarmed by summer visitors trying to stay cool on a hot day.

But the best is yet to come. When Channel 7 teased the story for its next segment prior to about seven minutes of commercials, they showed a picture of the dead seal on the beach with the fatal wound inflicted by the shark pixeled out so as not - I would assume - to offend viewers.

A second teaser for the upcoming news segment was for a great recipe of Italian-style octopus and featured a close-up of a tentacle being charbroiled over a flaming gas grill.

Yummy (not).

But the point is pity the poor octopus. I mean is there some kind of double standard going on here. Yeah, I know a seal is a mammal and an octopus is a (wait till I Google it) mollusc.

But can't show a wound on one, let's grill the other?

I don't get it. They're both sea creatures, right?

However which way you feel, if you sympathize with the cute little seals, don't go to Newfoundland. They love their seal flipper pie up there. Heartless bastards.