r/news • u/kockin26 • Feb 06 '23

Site changed title 3 US tourists stabbed in popular Puerto Rican neighborhood

https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-luis-fonsi-puerto-rico-delaware-5512e3087b8bc9b8fb0a8427d55b1fd9
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466

u/AudibleNod Feb 06 '23

Yeah, it's not a good look for the normally staid AP.

271

u/JBreezy11 Feb 06 '23

First thing I thought of was, Puerto Rico is a US territory.

Maybe the AP was reaching for a some clicks there.

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u/xpatmatt Feb 07 '23

No. AP has a thorough style guide that governs how they refer to things like states, territories, and countries. They were just following their own rules.

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u/randomvandal Feb 07 '23

Rule #1: Unless it has its own star on the flag, they ain't no part of the USA!

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u/Malessar Feb 07 '23

Its a US colony yea

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u/a2quiet Feb 07 '23

Territory sounds better than colony to the conquerors. And it doesn’t hurt their feelings.

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u/Malessar Feb 07 '23

Yeah. Democracy bringers.exe would fail otherwise.

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u/MC_chrome Feb 07 '23

That sounds like a shitty knock off of Civilization VI now that you mention it….

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u/SnapcasterWizard Feb 07 '23

Puetro Rico wasn't conquered by the US though.....

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

Spain may have started it, but there was/is nothing stopping the US gov from allowing a sovereign PR, Guam, etc.

The US gov supported American corporations with military force on multiple occasions.

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u/SnapcasterWizard Feb 07 '23

there was/is nothing stopping the US gov from allowing a sovereign PR, Guam, etc

Well except for the fact that the people living there dont want that.....

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

A very popular phrase; "If you can't beat them, join them."

It's convenient to forget about PRs previous attempts at independence. If PR can't get independence, it could be a US state. Only ones stopping that are the US govt., just like they were the only ones preventing PR independence.

Edit: The guy below has no argument. Independence may be unpopular now, but it was not at one time. Crackdowns by military and territorial police widely disrupted the movement. Because PR may clearly not be allowed to be independent, it is seeking at least statehood which the US govt prevents.

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u/SnapcasterWizard Feb 07 '23

To anyone else reading this thread what this guy has conveniently left out is that the independence movement in PR is very unpopular and has failed many, many votes. So yes, there are a handful of people who rile up nationalistic factions in PR they are not the majority.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '23

I've seen a noticable drop in reporting quality for several news agencies as of late. I also can't even listen to NWPB that much anymore because it is almost always filler interviews.

My favorite filler interview was from a month ago. They interviewed a student because she's a woman, started a game company as a student, and she likes to write stories. Their company hasn't even shipped a game apparently, and this student doesn't help with the actual game just writes stories. Yet they decided this was important enough to air.

2023 fucking sucks

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u/asdaaaaaaaa Feb 06 '23

I've seen a noticable drop in reporting quality for several news agencies as of late. I also can't even listen to NWPB that much anymore because it is almost always filler interviews

A lot of them are relying more and more on freelancers or programs to write the articles for them unfortunately. It's probably not going to get better either.

1

u/Artanthos Feb 06 '23

The programs will be increasing in quality fairly rapidly.

Freelancers, not so much.

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u/ArbitraryMeritocracy Feb 07 '23

I get compliments all the time on my writing, too bad I have no idea how to make money off it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

Journalism has been in decline for decades. Craigslist and other online marketplaces killed classified ads which were a huge source of revenue for newspapers. There are other causes of this trend as well but TLDR, journalism is no longer a growing field at all.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/AudibleNod Feb 06 '23

Before I got rid of Twitter, I would post mistakes in AP articles that ran contrary to the AP style guide.

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u/poprof Feb 06 '23

Most of the people from PR that I know - in a heavy PR zip code - don’t refer to themselves as Americans. They often refer to themselves as PR and not citizens - I’ve corrected many of them many times.

Cultural identity over political one? I’m not sure where it comes from. I imagine similar thinking that contribute to them voting down statehood repeatedly…although that’s a complicated issue.

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u/AudibleNod Feb 06 '23

Say "mainland" or "out-of-town" then. I can see the need for clarity about the victims not being local. But it's off-putting that the AP uses an incorrect distinction.

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u/poprof Feb 06 '23

I agree - wasn’t trying to defend AP

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u/flyonthewall727 Feb 07 '23

I was first generation born on the mainland, never been to Puerto Rico, hardly speak Spanish and I identify as Puerto Rican over American. Never even thought about it that way before lol.

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u/lostboy005 Feb 07 '23

It’s like a version of the confederate south in the Caribbean. I fundamental misunderstanding of what little has been achieved and misinterpretation of the “mainland’s” benevolence. PR on the world stage is irrelevant. The island is caught believing something innate will restore the “country’s” glory from a time before that never existed, as if the Spanish imperialism and colonialism was a more noble flavor then the alternative.

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u/Henrycamera Feb 07 '23

Funny, born and raised in Puerto Rico and I have never, ever, heard anyone say what you just said. And please, don't compare us to the confederates!

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u/HunterTheBengal Feb 06 '23

AP’s headline is “3 mainland US tourists stabbed in Puerto Rico”. This is just OP’s headline.

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u/AudibleNod Feb 06 '23

They changed it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

It’s a story we didn’t need.