Tuesday, October 27, 2015

More on the Use of "Alleged"


There was a flurry of media criticism directed at the use of "alleged"* applied to acts of terror violence directed at Israelis but whatever Israelis did was reported as straightforward and factual without any doubt impugned.







Well, the Pals. are taking that to a new level



"Alleged knife attacks against Israelis, fatal shootings of Palestinians by Israeli police and settlers, settler rampage and Palestinians’ demonstrations across the West Bank have become almost a daily occurrence since the first of October 2015, sparking a diplomatic scramble to defuse the situation."

That's why we criticise the media.


*
JOURNALISTS have a bad habit. Writing about people suspected of crimes is tricky in many ways, and one of them is conveying the level of facts legally proven to be true at the time of writing. Specifically, journalists too frequently use “alleged” as their own kind of get-out-of-jail-free card, attaching it to a noun that very much implies the suspect is guilty, without the journalist committing to it outright.


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