AP - moral relativism and body count
This is not a good day to squabble about politics or to nitpick. But this headline by AP got up my nose:
A Palestinian suicide bomber attacked a bakery Monday, killing himself and three people, police said. It was the first suicide bombing in Israel in nine months and the first ever to hit Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city.
No, the number of murdered Jews is still three. Of course, technically speaking, there was another dead body. But it is a technicality, with all due care about humanity and life. The youngster sent by his Islamic Jihad operators was dead after the last round of brainwashing and after his parents prayed for the “success” of his homicidal mission.
But in the smelly moral relativism of AP there is no much difference between the murderers and the victims.
And another detail: the stringer that sent this piece in is obviously an Israeli, one Revital Levy-Stein. Shame on you .
Cross-posted on SimplyJews
January 29th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
You’re certainly right to criticize the headline, but the body of the text makes up for it: “killing himself and three people” excludes the killer from the class of ‘people’ and implies that he was subhuman or nonhuman.
As for the Israeli stringer who wrote the article, he may not be responsible. I know I’ve read many times over the years that titles are routinely supplied by editors with no input from the authors of the stories.
January 30th, 2007 at 12:41 am
To be even more of a nitpicker, I would say that these three were murdered. But for AP it is a nuance that will not register.
You are right about titles though. Oh, and that stringer is a she ;-)