You may beg to differ. You will be wrong, but you may beg to differ.

Agencies use their own style guides, and I guarantee* you that ‘spit-up’ does not appear in the AP manual of style.

So it’s either sloppy editing, or shadow editorialising. Neither of which we should be pleased with.

In my opinion, it’s a dog whistle.

*I may not honour this guarantee. I am a turd like that.