Submitted 22 hours ago by fargeol@lemmy.world to [deleted]
“Brendan Nugent [went] on to allegedly drive a Toyota LandCruiser into the independent MP Helen Haines in a targeted attack”
(The Guardian)
I don’t care about the car’s model name or brand so why is it always specified in news stories or podcasts?
Also, why don’t we do that with everything else?
“The robber took her Longchamp bag before fleeing on his Minimotors Dualtron Mini. A witness saw the scene an called the police with their iPhone 18 Pro.”
Sounds fun, right?
Same reason they use surnames. For clarity.
Not quite so. The media also insists on doing this with guns, while cramming in as many irrelevant descriptions and scare-words as possible.
Do they always do that?
I just looked through recent articles on vehicle-related incidents on a major local news website for my city, and that doesn’t seem to be the case at least there.
I was unable to quickly find a recent story on that site that does mention it, so your premise doesn’t seem to be exactly true; maybe it’s true where you live, but not everywhere in the world.
would you rather get hit by a Miata or a Ram?
cattywampas@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Because it’s relevant. The kind of car that hits somebody makes a big difference.
YoFrodo@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Also details make a story. Otherwise it might be something like: “This guy hit someone with a car. End of story”
fargeol@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Before searching, I didn’t know a Toyota Landcruiser was a 4x4 SUV, which is the relevant piece of information in this case.
I used this example because it was the one that made me wonder why the car’s brand is always specified but I hear that nearly everywhere: “The killer drove his Ford Puma to the victim’s house…”, “they fled the robbery in a Pontiac Firebird” (I invented these ones).
The only other case of brands or models being mentioned that I can think of are planes, rockets and weapons which are not common objects everyone will buy in their life.
cattywampas@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
But I did know that. So do many others. So when a news story mentions that someone was hit by a Landcruiser we can immediately differentiate that from a Prius or an F-150.
You could maybe just say “SUV” but even that has a lot of ambiguity.
Then add in the fact that the press tends to stick to consistent reporting styles, and when describing vehicles it’s also helpful in situations where the perpetrator is still at large.
Fallibilist@feddit.uk 20 hours ago
The exact make and model isn’t always strictly relevant. In this particular example it would suffice to just say “large SUV” or similar. Not everyone knows what kind of car a LandCruiser even is.
Seralth@piefed.seralth.com 1 hour ago
Yes but sometimes it is relavent. And it’s safer to have one consistent style of reporting for this sorta things. So when it does matter it’s not accidentally forgotten or over looked.
It’s a better safe than sorry approach.