The story of the man who was shot by an air marshal has been reported in two different ways. One version reports that the man "claimed he had a bomb in his backpack." The other reports that the man "said there was a bomb in his backpack."
I don't which is true and I have no tone of voice to work with. But I can imagine, "I have a bomb in my backpack," sounds either threatening or maybe bragging. "There's a bomb in my backpack," sounds scared or surprised, particularly when you're thinking of the man being paranoid.
I'm not saying it would have made a difference to the air marshal. But it certainly does make a difference if the journalist is trying to rationalize the air marshal's response.
No comments:
Post a Comment