KGW

In the hours after the first reports of a shooting involving police yesterday at Hoyt Arboretum, news outlets used caution in referring to the incident. We didn’t actually know that an officer shot somebody until around 5 pm.

At that time, I changed our headline from “Police Involved in Shooting at Hoyt Arboretum” to “Police Shoot Man at Hoyt Arboretum.” Here’s a roundup of how other news outlets are wording the incident, as of this morning. Only KGW came right out and used the word “kill” in the active voice:

KGW
  • KGW

KATU
  • KATU

KOIN
  • KOIN

The Oregonian
  • The Oregonian

Willamette Week
  • Willamette Week

6 replies on “A Cop Shooting by Any Other Name”

  1. KPTV (Fox): “Police use perfectly acceptable lawful force protecting themselves from Downtown Portland street trash armed with pit bull.”

  2. Yeah, but news outlets use caution (or a passive voice) even when the details are clear. The war in Iraq, for instance, produced a lot of headlines like, “US Soldiers Enter Fallujah, 15 Dead.”

    eh… that wasn’t a good example.

  4. DEADLY mistakes!

    *cue orchestral swell*

    Also — speaking as a professional journalist — I don’t find any problem with how KOIN, KATU or the Willamette Week phrased the headline. They all have to have unique heads and there are only so many ways to say what happened in such a limited space.

    On the other hand, the Oregonian’s headline is superfluous and not nearly as informative as it should be.

  6. ntrecek,

    We’ve been over this a few times all ready in other threads on this subject today, but that’s not always possible.

    Besides, he died from being shot in the leg (aterial trauma).

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