Moslem Terrorists Take Hostages, and Hole Up in Church in Rouen, Normandy, France, (But the Associated Press Doesn’t Want You to Know That!) Their “Motive” was “Unclear”; Police Killed Them; The Dead were Surely More Mentally Ill White Supremacists, “Tied” to Anders Behring Breivik

By Nicholas Stix

The AP headline follows:

Jul 26, 5:05 AM EDT
FRENCH OFFICIAL: ASSAILANTS TAKE HOSTAGES IN CHURCH NEAR NORMANDY CITY OF ROUEN

The AP story follows:

PARIS (AP) -- French official: Assailants take hostages in church near Normandy city of Rouen.

Your eyes did not betray you, nor did I. The Associated Press ran a 15-word-long story that consists of a headline written twice. The AP is desperate not to inform the readers about the ongoing crisis, and so it repeats itself, and uses euphemism, rather than clear English. When do you hear of “assailants” taking hostages? You hear of bank robbers, or shooters, or hijackers, or terrorists taking hostages, but never “assailants.” Never, that is, until now.

An assailant is someone who attacked someone, in some way. But the story says nothing about what they did before taking hostages. Maybe, to be completely circular, the story should have said, “hostage-takers take hostages”?

It’s really important, don’t you know, not to profile hostage-takers.
 

Update:

Jul 26, 5:17 AM EDT
AP NewsAlert

PARIS (AP) -- French official: Police kill 2 attackers who took hostages in Normandy church; motive unclear.
 

N.S.: The “motive” is officially “unclear,” but we can be sure that it had nothing to do with Islam.