RT
October 22, 2018
Critics lashed out at The Associated Press for calling a huge US-bound caravan of migrants an “army” in their headline. The news agency changed the title of the piece, but that was not enough to cool down some of the folks online.
The story, originally titled ‘Ragged, growing army of migrants resumes march towards US’, appeared on the outlets’ website on Sunday. It was not the reporting itself – the style wasn’t all that different from AP’s usual work – but a single word in the headline that ticked off many people on social media.
Some readers, including Walter Shaub, the former head of the US Office of Government Ethics, argued that it is inappropriate use the word “army” to describe a group of more than 4,000 Central American migrants hoping to cross to the US through Mexico.
What does the AP Style Guide say about using the word “army” to describe desperate families who lack any guarantee of adequate nourishment as they flee destruction and head on foot across a desert toward a heartless regime that steals children and threatens to deploy a real army?
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) October 21, 2018
Ragged? Army? They are refugees!! What the hell is this headline? @AP pic.twitter.com/0sfLEVFX1n
— Monica Villamizar (@monica_vv) October 22, 2018
Yes yes. Army. Army of dirty diapers ?
— JustDani (@danigirlPA) October 22, 2018
Yeah, I too look at a photo of sleeping toddlers and exhausted mothers and think, “yes, that is absolutely an ‘army.'”
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 21, 2018
Others accused AP of mirroring the rhetoric of President Donald Trump and spreading xenophobia.
This is the deleted tweet by @AP_Politics. An “army?” Seriously enabling @realDonaldTrump
propaganda and xenophobia. Thanks for nothing. pic.twitter.com/TEAxOLZVJQ— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) October 22, 2018
Is Breitbart writing AP tweets…