Open Now
Open Now
Watch now

Decapitated professor: New York Times headline that victimizes killer causes scandal

The turn of the title of the article which relates the assassination of Samuel Paty supposes that the one who beheaded the teacher is a victim of the French police.

"French police shoot and kill man after fatal knife attack in street": the title of the article published online by The New York Times recounting the terrorist attack which claimed the life of the history professor, Samuel Paty Friday October 16 is certainly not false, but minimizes the most important fact: the beheading of a professor in front of a college during a terrorist act.

It is indeed a way of seeing the information which implies in addition that the assailant is a victim of the French police.

This turn of phrase assumes that the victim is not the beheaded person, but the one shot in the street by the police.

An editorial choice criticized

The editorial choice of the New York newspaper was very quickly criticized on social networks.

"College professor beheaded for blasphemy in France - the most secular of nations - and the New York Times headlines like this": the post by Claire Lehmann, editor and founder of Quillette on Twitter is the first in a long list.

Journalist Eugénie Bastié also published "The Art of Denial in the American Multiculturalist Press"

Another title: "The French police kill a man who had just beheaded a professor in the street"

Indeed, the New York Times later changed the title somewhat to read the beheading. The new title being "The French police kill a man who had just beheaded a professor in the street".

Thousands of Internet users reacted to this article. Some with political attacks, others with journalistic attacks. But all say they are scandalized.

Follow us on Google News

Filed under