Violence is always a choice.
So is the quote editors choose for a headline.
Why choose a quote from the defendant that attempts to excuse his actions?
The man in this case has been charged but has not gone to trial. He has pleaded not guilty. He is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
This post is not about the specifics of this case, it’s general commentary about the way rape is erased and minimised in media reporting on men’s violence against women.
This is a common trope in headlines about men’s violence against women.
Choosing to quote claims by a defendant or his lawyer and presenting them in headlines as if they’re fact or evidence is an unconscionable misuse of power.
Ethical journalists know better.
In this case, not only are they promoting the alleged perpetrator’s excuse, but they’re also erasing what the article describes as allegedly a ‘repeated’ and ‘sustained’ domestic violence assault against a woman who was reportedly too scared to talk to police until she was in hospital and the man was in custody.
These are all quotes this publication could have chosen for the headline. They chose to go another way.
Gross.
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