I'm glad you said this, by the way. I usually pay close attention to the language used by various news outlets regarding the news -- and had a similar reaction to the way this story was being reported.
Context did make a difference, though. For instance, on this morning's Today Show, Meredith Viera used the word "tragedy" when she spoke to friends and classmates of those who died. But when she reported on the shootings, she used "murder" "horror", "vicious", "brutal", "mass-killing" and "senseless". She called the dead what they were -- victims, and made it quite clear that they were innocents who had been murdered, not abstractions. I haven't ever really thought of her as a particularly "deep" journalist, (and it's not as if "Today" is particularly hard-hitting,) but she earned my respect and admiration this morning.
By contrast, many of the talking heads on MSNBC and FoxNews made it sound as if this were an act of G-d.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-04-18 01:37 am (UTC)Context did make a difference, though. For instance, on this morning's Today Show, Meredith Viera used the word "tragedy" when she spoke to friends and classmates of those who died. But when she reported on the shootings, she used "murder" "horror", "vicious", "brutal", "mass-killing" and "senseless". She called the dead what they were -- victims, and made it quite clear that they were innocents who had been murdered, not abstractions. I haven't ever really thought of her as a particularly "deep" journalist, (and it's not as if "Today" is particularly hard-hitting,) but she earned my respect and admiration this morning.
By contrast, many of the talking heads on MSNBC and FoxNews made it sound as if this were an act of G-d.