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.
“Cosplay Gone Wrong”
Especially considering his actions after discovering she’d died:
Murderer Arrested
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.
(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.”
Touche. Doesn’t mean Gawker (and the USA Today) aren’t still shitty.
How about:
Man Commits Kidnapping to Look Like a Hero, Accidently Kills His Hostage
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”?
Perfect, and accurate.
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?
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.
Absolutely not, and I’m not sure why you felt the need to ask me that.
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.
He specified that it had to catch a reader’s interest, too.
Lazy, uninformative, boring, fails at journalism. Send your resume to CNN.
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?
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.
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”?
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.)