3 ms·
> Why is a victim a person but the actor is an inanimate object? To humanize the victim without ascribing blame, when blame is unknown. For the same reason you
by karaterobot 5y ago
> Why is a victim a person but the actor is an inanimate object?
To humanize the victim without ascribing blame, when blame is unknown. For the same reason you wouldn't have a headline that read "Alice killed Bob with her car": even though that may technically be true, it's needlessly critical. Needless from the perspective of an editorially neutral party, like a newspaper, but not from the perspective of an activist, like this website.
- markstos 5y agoConsider when a terrorist drove a truck into a Christmas market: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Christmas%20market%20killed%20with%20car https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Christmas%20market%20k... Most headlines were like "Lorry kills 12 at Christmas Market", like there was a killer truck on the loose. Here's an alternate framing of an article where a car is a fatal weapon: "Driver plows car into pedestrians at German bus stop, killing one" https://www.dw.com/en/driver-plows-car-into-pedestrians-at-german-bus-stop-killing-one/a-46822959 https://www.dw.com/en/driver-plows-car-into-pedestrians-at-g... The lead clarifies that "no assumptions should be made at this point". It's factual that a man drove a truck into a Christmas market and another person drove into a pedestrian at a bus stop. That can be reported without an assumption of guilt without re-framing the story as if the cars drove themselves.