# No, Gawker, man did not "Stage\[\] Kidnapping to Be a Hero, Accidentally Kill\[\] His Hostage." **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 30, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731 "2013-05-30T17:37:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/41 "2013-05-30T20:47:05Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Shitty news sources contain shitty journalism. [Similar headlines at USA Today, NBC, ABC, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Colorado Springs Gazette, Seattle Times, etc.](http://www.google.com/search?q=MAINE+KIDNAPPING+STAGED&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=#rls=com.microsoft:en-us%3AIE-SearchBox&sclient=psy-ab&q=maine+kidnapping+staged&oq=maine+kidnapping+staged&gs_l=serp.3...39700.42886.0.43406.23.21.0.0.0.0.559.5117.0j12j5j2j0j2.21.0...0.0...1c.1.15.psy-ab.65_Mw9MGtbQ&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.47244034,d.dmQ&fp=b13afd72f562bd5a&biw=1399&bih=874) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/42 "2013-05-30T20:48:44Z")
The headline is incorrect only if you define “kidnapping” to be the moment you force someone into a car against their will. However, the term also applies to the plot to hold someone by force as a whole - from grabbing them up, to housing them, to how they are ultimately disposed of. In this sense, the headline is perfectly accurate, as everything in the kidnapping after he took her against her will was a fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/43 "2013-05-30T20:50:01Z")
“Cosplay Gone Wrong” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/44 "2013-05-30T20:50:46Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > Wait. > > This guy wanted to have sex with her, but she said no. So he kidnaps her, and she dies during the abduction. _After he gets caught_ he says it wasn’t a “real” kidnapping, he was only pretending so he could rescue her and be a hero. > > And we believe this criminal… why? Looks to me like he kidnapped her and planned on raping her, and she died, so he came up with a BS story so he might not get in as much trouble. Is there something I’m missing? Especially considering his actions after discovering she’d died: > [@](#): > > After reaching his destination, Dube found Nichole had died en route, and decided to dump her body in a wooded area in Old Town. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/45 "2013-05-30T20:51:47Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Does anyone who dislikes the headline want to try writing a better one - one that’s “accurate” and still catches a reader’s interest? Gawker’s headline is 66 characters including spaces. **Murderer Arrested** ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/46 "2013-05-30T20:52:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > everything in the kidnapping after he took her against her will was a fiction. No, I’m pretty sure she actually was driven around in the trunk of a car and wound up dead. The only piece of the plan that was fiction was the rescue that never happened. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/47 "2013-05-30T20:58:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I know they don’t. But you still wouldn’t see a headline like that one. You’d see something like ‘Man charged with kidnapping and murder.’ (regarding perceived silliness of “alleged”) I actually once heard a TeeVee news reporter refer to a guy, captured and arrested after a police search, as “the alleged suspect.” ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/48 "2013-05-30T20:59:14Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > [Similar headlines at USA Today, NBC, ABC, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Colorado Springs Gazette, Seattle Times, etc.](http://www.google.com/search?q=MAINE+KIDNAPPING+STAGED&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=#rls=com.microsoft:en-us%3AIE-SearchBox&sclient=psy-ab&q=maine+kidnapping+staged&oq=maine+kidnapping+staged&gs_l=serp.3...39700.42886.0.43406.23.21.0.0.0.0.559.5117.0j12j5j2j0j2.21.0...0.0...1c.1.15.psy-ab.65_Mw9MGtbQ&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.47244034,d.dmQ&fp=b13afd72f562bd5a&biw=1399&bih=874) Touche. Doesn’t mean Gawker (and the USA Today) aren’t still shitty. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/49 "2013-05-30T21:02:40Z")
How about: Man Commits Kidnapping to Look Like a Hero, Accidently Kills His Hostage ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/50 "2013-05-30T21:08:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The headline is incorrect only if you define “kidnapping” to be the moment you force someone into a car against their will. However, the term also applies to the plot to hold someone by force as a whole - from grabbing them up, to housing them, to how they are ultimately disposed of. In this sense, the headline is perfectly accurate, as everything in the kidnapping after he took her against her will was a fiction. I have no idea what you mean by this. In what sense was it fiction? I’m sure if you’d asked her, as she lay dying in the back of a truck, her impression of the “prank” she wouldn’t have said, “Oh yeah, this is a good joke.” He took her against her will. He duct taped her against her will, presumably while she was extraordinarily frightened. He put her in the back of a truck, against her will, where she died in pain and in fear. He dumped her body so her family wouldn’t know what happened. What part of this is “fiction”? ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/51 "2013-05-30T21:09:40Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > How about: > > Man Commits Kidnapping to Look Like a Hero, Accidently Kills His Hostage Perfect, and accurate. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/52 "2013-05-30T21:14:29Z")
**Miller** , if the girl hadn’t died and the dude had been found out (either before or after he came to her “rescue”), do you think he’d be off the hook for kidnapping? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/53 "2013-05-30T21:16:42Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > I have no idea what you mean by this. In what sense was it fiction? I’m sure if you’d asked her, as she lay dying in the back of a truck, her impression of the “prank” she wouldn’t have said, “Oh yeah, this is a good joke.” Where has anyone characterized this as a prank? > [@](#): > > He took her against her will. He duct taped her against her will, presumably while she was extraordinarily frightened. He put her in the back of a truck, against her will, where she died in pain and in fear. He dumped her body so her family wouldn’t know what happened. What part of this is “fiction”? The fiction is where he poses as a stranger, kidnapping her for rape or ransom, when he is, in fact, someone she knows, who is planning to “rescue” her later on. That’s the part of the kidnapping that was staged. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/54 "2013-05-30T21:17:10Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > **Miller** , if the girl hadn’t died and the dude had been found out (either before or after he came to her “rescue”), do you think he’d be off the hook for kidnapping? Absolutely not, and I’m not sure why you felt the need to ask me that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/55 "2013-05-30T21:27:24Z")
I agree with those that say a headline is supposed to briefly describe the general story not simply report the technical legal definitions. I’m pretty sure the headline in the _Dallas News_ on November 23, 1963 didn’t say **Tourist killed while visiting our city yesterday**. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/56 "2013-05-30T21:44:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > **Murderer Arrested** He specified that it had to catch a reader’s interest, too. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/57 "2013-05-30T22:10:12Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > **Murderer Arrested** Lazy, uninformative, boring, fails at journalism. Send your resume to CNN. > [@monstro](#): > > How about: > > Man Commits Kidnapping to Look Like a Hero, Accidently Kills His Hostage Not too bad. It’s less pithy but the bigger problem is that it doesn’t quite connect A to B: how was he supposed to become a hero by kidnapping someone? “Stages” gives you a clearer idea because it shows there was deception involved. Maybe there’s a way to work in ‘Rescuer,’ or ‘Hero’ (better because it comes straight from the police), like “‘Hero’ kidnapped woman so he could ‘rescue’ her, but killed her instead.” It could be more direct and the ending feels a little weak, but I think it’s not awful and would satisfy posters here. Yes/No? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/58 "2013-05-30T22:12:31Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The fiction is where he poses as a stranger, kidnapping her for rape or ransom, when he is, in fact, someone she knows, who is planning to “rescue” her later on. That’s the part of the kidnapping that was staged. The fuck? You can be kidnapped by someone you know. That’s the most common kind of kidnapping. If I put on a mask when I’m robbing the local liquor store at gunpoint, I’m really robbing the store even if I’m buddies with Apu the cashier. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/59 "2013-05-30T22:16:14Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Where has anyone characterized this as a prank? > > The fiction is where he poses as a stranger, kidnapping her for rape or ransom, when he is, in fact, someone she knows, who is planning to “rescue” her later on. That’s the part of the kidnapping that was staged. Oh, ok. The part that was staged (fiction) was the part that didn’t actually happen. Got it. Have you ever heard the term “a distinction without difference”? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731/60 "2013-05-30T22:24:57Z")
Parents who kidnap their own children are still considered kidnappers. **Marley** , my issue with “staged” is that it makes it seem like the guy didn’t intend to kidnap the girl. He did intend to kidnap her. He didn’t intend to kill her or harm her in any other way. Which only makes him similar to most kidnappers. If I steal something from a store, it doesn’t matter what my intention was. Shoplifting is the act of stealing, period. A headline reading “Monstro Staged a Shoplifting so She Could Be in a Headline” would be kinda…nonsensical. (I say “kinda” because this is mostly a pedantic exercise for me. I understand the OP’s point, but I ain’t losing no sleep over it.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-gawker-man-did-not-stage-kidnapping-to-be-a-hero-accidentally-kill-his-hostage/659731.md?page=4)