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Last weekend\u2019s mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket raised several questions for journalists who covered it, in New York and afar.<\/p>\n
Initial wire dispatches mentioned the suspected shooter was white and the neighborhood of the store predominantly Black. The Oregonian\/OregonLive\u2019s reporting guidelines say to mention race only when relevant.<\/p>\n
At that early point, at least in published reports, the apparent racist motivations of the suspect were not yet known, so we removed mention of race from The Associated Press article we had published on OregonLive. Moments later, the AP confirmed that investigators believed the suspect was motivated by racial hatred and had targeted a Black community. The fact the suspect was white and 10 victims were Black was now relevant to understanding the events and needed to be included.<\/p>\n
Later that Saturday afternoon, news reports said a 180-page \u201cwhite supremacist manifesto\u201d from the suspected shooter had surfaced. National Public Radio has decided not to refer to such documents as \u201cmanifestos,\u201d <\/a>which lends a patina of importance to what are often incoherent ramblings. The AP moved away from the word \u201cmanifesto\u201d as well.<\/p>\n A recent book, \u201cA Field Guide to White Supremacy,\u201d includes a section where the editors, Kathleen Belew and Ramon A. Gutierrez, suggest revisions to the Associated Press Stylebook, guidance followed by many newsrooms. The authors write, \u201cWe urge journalists and editors not to reprint or hyperlink these documents, but rather to seek expert commentary to read, decode, and understand them.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, journalists and news editors have become wary of focusing on mass shooters, especially at the expense of the victims. Some newspapers have stopped publishing reports of mass shootings on their front pages. Other newsrooms limit the use of shooters\u2019 names to keep the spotlight off of them.<\/p>\n After the 2015 mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, the Douglas County sheriff called on the media to not use the name of the man who had killed nine people and then himself.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be very clear: I will not name the shooter,\u201d Sheriff John Hanlin said at the time, during a news conference. \u201cI will not give him credit for this horrific act of cowardice.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oregonian\/OregonLive tries to limit the use of a mass murderer\u2019s name, but I do think readers are well-served by reporting that delves into the factors that may have motivated the crimes. Were there previous threats or concerning behavior? This is important to know, for instance, in the discussion around \u201cred flag\u201d laws, which allow courts to seize firearms in some cases.<\/p>\n Did the assailant fall prey to indoctrination through the internet? Did someone buy a gun illegally or stockpile ammunition? These facts, too, have public policy implications.<\/p>\n As more information became available, AP also shifted from describing the attack as \u201cracially motivated\u201d to calling it, flatly, \u201cracist.\u201d Such clear language serves readers.<\/p>\n Belew, an expert in extremist violence, argues against the myth of the \u201clone wolf\u201d attacker, saying hate-based assaults are often part of a larger movement. \u201cA history focused on perpetrators reveals that many of the purportedly inexplicable acts of violence in the present are motivated by a coherent and deliberate ideology,\u201d Belew writes, citing the mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques.<\/p>\n Indeed, the suspected shooter in Buffalo appears to have been motivated by the racist ideology known as the \u201cgreat replacement theory.\u201d The Associated Press describes the conspiracy theory, \u201cseeping from the internet\u2019s fringes,\u201d as \u201ca plot to diminish the influence of white people. \u2026 both through the immigration of nonwhite people into societies that have largely been dominated by white people, as well as through simple demographics, with white people having lower birth rates than other populations.\u201d<\/p>\n The AP seemed to scramble last weekend after readers on social media criticized the wire service for referring to the white shooter as a \u201cteenager.\u201d While accurate (he is 18), the description seemed to some readers at odds with descriptions of Black 18-year-olds, such as Michael Brown, as \u201cmen.\u201d (Brown was shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.)<\/p>\n In other words, did the choice of \u201cteenager\u201d in any way send the message that the perpetrator was a misbegotten youth rather than a stone-cold killer? The AP quickly deleted the reference and posted a tweet referring to the accused as a \u201cman,\u201d adding, \u201cThis replaces an earlier tweet that did not make clear that the suspect is an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n I can see an editor working under time pressure choosing the word \u201cteenager\u201d as something out of the ordinary and worth highlighting. But editors looking more closely may see a pattern in the media of describing suspects in distinct ways — jumping to mental illness as an issue for a white assailant, say, while highlighting a Black perpetrator\u2019s arrest history.<\/p>\n