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this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
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Literally no sane person would ever imagine the headline means a random protestor fired a rubber bullet at her. Everyone knows it was a police officer. The article specifically describes it as a police officer targetting her in particular. Police officers are generally the only people armed with rubber bullets at protests. Of all the mountains of propaganda that are actively flying, this is very much a mole hill.
Bernie called for nonviolent resistance. He did not imply anyone was violent by doing so. Martin Luther King Jr. called for nonviolent resistance. He did not imply anyone was violent by doing so.
I think they're point is that a better headline might be something like "Reporter targeted and shot with rubber bullet by police". That more clearly calls out that it was intentional and not a stray, which most people are probably going to assume.
I'm kind of amazed that we are two years into the Gaza genocide and you still do not know the difference between active and passive media voice.
A "rubber bullet" is a glaringly obvious clue to the perpetrator, and the article actively assigns blame and responsibility.
This is irrelevant. The brains of people only register what they see in the headline.
The perpetrator is the cop.
There shouldn't need to be "clues"
I understand you; the point is it’s not just grammatical pedantry. Passive language is deliberately used to reduce feelings of culpability. “The suspect died in custody” is less blame pointing than “Police denied suspect treatment for injuries, leading to his death in custody”.
Even if people understand that the police would be the ones with the rubber bullets, there’s an emotional response behind “Police shot at reporter” that you don’t get from “reporter was hit by bullet”.