October 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The Associated Press (AP) has issued a new set of guidelines discouraging journalists from referring to riots as “riots,” urging them to use the term “unrest” instead.
“A riot is a wild or violent disturbance of the peace involving a group of people,” the new addition to the AP Stylebook says. “The term riot suggests uncontrolled chaos and pandemonium. Focusing on rioting and property destruction rather than underlying grievance has been used in the past to stigmatize broad swaths of people protesting against lynching, police brutality or for racial justice, going back to the urban uprisings of the 1960s.”
Instead, the AP wants journalists to use the term “unrest” because it is a “vaguer, milder and less emotional term for a condition of angry discontent and protest verging on revolt.”
New guidance on AP Stylebook Online:
Use care in deciding which term best applies:
A riot is a wild or violent disturbance of the peace involving a group of people. The term riot suggests uncontrolled chaos and pandemonium. (1/5)— APStylebook (@APStylebook) September 30, 2020
Unrest is a vaguer, milder and less emotional term for a condition of angry discontent and protest verging on revolt. (3/5)
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) September 30, 2020
Revolt and uprising both suggest a broader political dimension or civil upheavals, a sustained period of protests or unrest against powerful groups or governing systems. (5/5)
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) September 30, 2020
The new advice follows months of the mainstream media working to downplay violence that has accompanied Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests across the United States, from arson to looting to assault and more:
MSNBC reporter says “I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly.”
As a building burns in the background…
pic.twitter.com/KGrtpPsF3E— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 29, 2020
CNN reporter reports in front of a burning building in Kenosha with a chyron that reads “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests After Police Shooting”
No, really
pic.twitter.com/VMUB3AdB3V— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 27, 2020
Slanting the news is nothing new for the standard-setting AP, which in 2017 approved a slate of terminology favorable to transgender activists, such as using “they/them/their” for “stories about people who identify as neither male nor female or ask not to be referred to as he/she/him/her,” changing “gender transition” to “gender confirmation,” and declaring that “gender refers to a person’s social identity, while sex refers to biological characteristics.”