Former Indiana teacher Brittany Fortinberry is facing additional child molestation charges after a sixth alleged victim came forward. She was originally accused of arranging group sex with boys as young as 13 years old while they allegedly wore masks from the movie 'Scream.'
All of it is being alleged—that’s what an accusation is.
But they’re not accusing her of arranging sex with boys who were allegedly wearing masks, they’re accusing her of arranging sex with boys who were actually wearing them. In the context of the act of which she’s accused, there were no allegations.
“Alleged” isn’t idempotent—every time you add it, it modifies the meaning.
Incorrect. They plainly state she is in fact accused of the sex act. They are only saying the mask wearing is alleged because they can’t know that. They qualify that as that portion of the encounters doesn’t seem to affect the criminal charges but certainly makes it a bit more WTF and a better headline.
This isn’t a matter of poor training. Actual journalists have to follow standards that come with legal repercussions. Printing that someone certifiably did something that is a matter of a criminal proceeding without a formal conviction is an easy way to end up in front of a judge for libel.
Take the sentence “Police accused John Doe of inciting a lynch mob to attack the alleged rapist“. The police aren’t alleging that the victim was a rapist, they’re saying the rape allegation was part of the context of their own accusation against John Doe.
If an act is described as an accusation, it’s already implied that everything within the description is an allegation by the accusers. But if something within the description is itself labeled as “alleged”, that nested allegation becomes part of scenario the accusers are reconstructing.
Can someone re-train journalists on the use of “allegedly”? The accusation is that she did these things, not that she is alleged to have done them.
Sprinkling the word around with no logical consistency just trains people to ignore it, which defeats the purpose.
In this case what’s being alleged is the wearing of scream masks.
All of it is being alleged—that’s what an accusation is.
But they’re not accusing her of arranging sex with boys who were allegedly wearing masks, they’re accusing her of arranging sex with boys who were actually wearing them. In the context of the act of which she’s accused, there were no allegations.
“Alleged” isn’t idempotent—every time you add it, it modifies the meaning.
Incorrect. They plainly state she is in fact accused of the sex act. They are only saying the mask wearing is alleged because they can’t know that. They qualify that as that portion of the encounters doesn’t seem to affect the criminal charges but certainly makes it a bit more WTF and a better headline.
Accusation and allegation are roughly synonymous. I’m not sure what exactly your issue is here.
They are synonymous so they shouldn’t have used both words.
This isn’t a matter of poor training. Actual journalists have to follow standards that come with legal repercussions. Printing that someone certifiably did something that is a matter of a criminal proceeding without a formal conviction is an easy way to end up in front of a judge for libel.
Take the sentence “Police accused John Doe of inciting a lynch mob to attack the alleged rapist“. The police aren’t alleging that the victim was a rapist, they’re saying the rape allegation was part of the context of their own accusation against John Doe.
If an act is described as an accusation, it’s already implied that everything within the description is an allegation by the accusers. But if something within the description is itself labeled as “alleged”, that nested allegation becomes part of scenario the accusers are reconstructing.