In the article “The grammar of police shootings”, Balko strongly defines the phrase “everything is in the language we use”. Balko brings up many examples of how newspapers word articles in certain ways in order to make the readers view the article differently. Balko indirectly shows how the grammar we use effects our understanding of a situation. If words are used incorrectly, the story can be twisted and cause confusion amongst the readers. Another way that stories are twisted depends on who was involved in the shooting. In a case where an officer is involved, the articles doesn’t states specific details in order to maintain uncertainty. These reports also try to alter the responsibility aspect. For example, In an incident where a 10 year old boy was shot by an officer, the article includes that a dog was in the way and the officers intention was to shoot the dog. The article doesn’t stress that a boy was shot, it stresses that the shot missed the dog. Although this may not be the case and the shot could’ve actually been fired by accident, the article still tried to make the officer not look at fault.
I think that one of the articles main intentions is to inform people that we shouldn’t believe everything we read and hear because crucial details can be left out. I’m not saying don’t believe anything you hear, but be sure to be open minded and know that there could always be more details to a story that you don’t know.
I completely agree with you on how they are trying to shift the responsibility by not sharing the entire story of what took place. Instead of stating the main point of the article, on how the boy was shot, it focuses on how the gun was pointed at the dog initially and how the shot missed the dog, when in reality it missed the dog because it hit the 10 year old boy.
The article definitely was intending to make people more suspicious like you said. It usually helps to get info on a situation from a variety of different sources, as well as fact checking them. It feels like these days there isn’t much news reported that isn’t shot through the lens of an agenda.