Headline Offends

Headlines are designed to grab your attention. But Tuesday's Toronto Sun did so in a very offensive way. In huge, capitalized letters it screamed "COP KILLED." Not "Police Officer Slain" or "OPP Constable Shot." Just a crude, paper selling headline lacking any sensitivity for the family of Officer Vu Pham.

It was years ago that I was sensitized by a grieving couple to the hurtful power of language in newspapers. Their adult son, married and an expectant family, was a construction worker who fell six stories to his death from an apartment building. In the London Free Press a journalist described his fatal fall as "spectacular." You can just imagine how painful that poorly chosen adjective was to his parents!

"Cop Killed" is no way to describe the tragic death of a fifteen year veteran of the police force who was a devoted Christian, a faithful husband, a loving father, a responsible son, and a great brother to his adoptive sister who described him as "a wonderful man of God who lived his faith on his sleeve ... and was real."