The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Bottom Stories of the Day
- “Local Student Enjoys School Closing”–headline, Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette, Oct. 21
- “Grand Traverse Man Finds Old Newspapers Under Bed”–headline, Associated Press, Oct. 21
The Usual ‘Suspects’
“Intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has killed three alleged militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region,” the Associated Press reports from Pakistan.
Suspected missile hits alleged militants? (The headline calls the missile “alleged.”) What is with these weasel words, and could the AP please get back to us when it has something definitive?
That first question isn’t a rhetorical one, and here’s the answer: American journalism students have it drummed into them that when reporting on crimes, until after a conviction, you always qualify the authorities’ claims about who committed the crime with words like allegedly and suspected because the accused are presumed innocent. Oh, and if they’re not found guilty, they can sue you.
But these words are totally out of place here. It isn’t a crime to be a missile, and although militants often commit crimes, militancy itself is not against the law. The AP and other news organizations unthinkingly use the language of crime when writing about terrorism because they have bought into the ideology that terrorism is essentially a law-enforcement matter. America may or may not be the world’s policemen, but the AP is convinced it’s covering the world’s police beat.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
