E-Mailbag: Do 'Bikini Murder' Headlines Cross A Line?
(CBS/PHOTODISC)
Tiffany Souers, a Clemson University student who was strangled to death with her bikini top.
We got an email from reader Jim D. about the use of the phrase in most of the stories describing the case:
"Beyond the obvious titillation aspects, why exactly do almost all stories or articles (including some on CBS) use the phrases 'bikini murder' or 'bikini murder suspect' or 'bikini' something in the headline or article heading? I wonder how her family feels about that."A lot of news stories tend to become whittled down to a few catch phrases, or slugs, as they're more commonly known in the news business. It's an easy, quick way to refer to a story -- as soon as you hear or read those few words, you immediately know what's being discussed. However, is there a point, as Jim D. appears to suggest, when these slugs are too crude? What considerations are made behind the scenes with regard to this type of story and the way that it's described? Michael Sims, director of news and operations at CBSNews.com, had this to say:
We always strive to be editorially sensitive when a death is involved. We try to recognize that someone is grieving for each victim, and treat our stories appropriately.UPDATE: Dan Collins, CBSNews.com's senior producer for hard news, shared this response:We do need to identify stories in a way that we think helps readers find what they're looking for. A growing number of people are finding their news by entering keywords into search engines. To give the reader the best chance of finding what they're looking for, and when appropriate, we try to use the keywords we believe our readers would be using to find the story.
We continually discuss the appropriateness of headlines, copy, photos, etc. It's a never-ending dialogue.
"Bikini murder" was just one of those things. The phrase emerged as headline shorthand for a particular crime. It's not terribly unusual for the "weapon" to become part of the story shorthand. "Ax murder" comes to mind. The method of death "shot to death," "stabbing victim," "torture victim," "dragged to death" etc., also appear quite a bit. None of these formulations speak to the sensitivities of loved ones. They describe the brutality and violence of the crimes. In this case, I'm not sure "strangled student" would have been of much comfort to this young woman's family.Questions of appropriateness and editorial sensitivity are obviously those that newsrooms encounter on a daily basis. And, like so many editorial decisions, they don't often offer any black and white answers. It's essentially a judgment call, one that every news outlet sharing the story might make differently. For instance, performing a Google News search using the terms "Tiffany Souers," turns up this list of articles -- most of which do not mention "bikini murder" in their headlines. A Google News search of the phrase "bikini murder" reveals similar articles, most with that phrase included the headline.
What do you think?