A Strange Use of Punctuation
The headline of a BBC News piece this morning caught my eye"
'Peacekeeper dies' in Kabul blast
By now we're all familiar with the burgeoning use of "scare quotes" by the media (see how humorously self-referential?) as a way of disclaiming responsibility for any potential biases inherent in the use of a term. (They're also used, less creditably, to distance the author from terms considered too "emotive," such as "terrorist" or "evil.")
In the present case, I just can't figure it out. The article uses the term "peacekeeper" without scare quotes, and the BBC doesn't seem to doubt its sources about the fact that a peacekeeper is dead. The only area of uncertainty is whether the person was German.
So what is it? Bias? Stupidity? Bad editing?
By now we're all familiar with the burgeoning use of "scare quotes" by the media (see how humorously self-referential?) as a way of disclaiming responsibility for any potential biases inherent in the use of a term. (They're also used, less creditably, to distance the author from terms considered too "emotive," such as "terrorist" or "evil.")
In the present case, I just can't figure it out. The article uses the term "peacekeeper" without scare quotes, and the BBC doesn't seem to doubt its sources about the fact that a peacekeeper is dead. The only area of uncertainty is whether the person was German.
So what is it? Bias? Stupidity? Bad editing?
posted by Jeff at 7:45 AM
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