Here are the key sentences as published on the CNN website, which would hardly qualify as a media outlet that would lean to the conservative side on such a hot social issue. The information is the same, yet the material was re-written somewhat, meaning that the word choice passed through another reporter and-or copyeditor.
Eight deaths blamed on remnants of the storm in North Carolina were in the southwestern part of the state. ... Four people were killed Friday in Macon County, in the southwest corner of the state, said Rob Brisley with the state Office of Emergency Management. A toddler, an unborn child and two adults died when a wall of water smashed a community of 30 homes to bits.This is a copyediting style question that we have noted here before at GetReligion.org -- when a similar style decision was made (believe it or not) at the New York Times.
This is a hard issue for journalists who want to be fair to partisans on both sides of the issue. Perhaps this small but symbolic action is, somehow, linked to the Peterson case. Perhaps it is linked to the growing use 4D ultrasound technology.
Then again, perhaps it is a concession to reality, to the words that people use in real life. This is not politics. It is a matter of simple humanity. Faced with this kind of tragedy, loved ones and public servants do not tell journalists "we lost a fetus."
No, they lost the baby. They lost a child, an "unborn child." It is awkward or even cruel to say anything else.
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