Saturday brought news of another homicide in Peoria. The Journal Star reports that “Ronald J. Lewis Jr., 17, of 3418 W. Villa Ridge, died from a gunshot wound to the chest in the 200 block of Green Street.” Without taking anything away from the horror of this or other killings this year, I have an observation about how it’s being reported in the news.

I noticed that the Journal Star is reporting it as the eleventh homicide of 2007, whereas other news outlets like WHOI and WMBD-AM are reporting it as the tenth homicide. Why the discrepancy?

Well, the Journal Star actually explains later in their story. They say:

Among the 11 homicides in the city this year is the fatal shooting by police of a man armed with a gun when officers responded to a domestic disturbance call.

While the word “homicide” can be defined as a generic term for “killing,” it carries the connotation that the killing was done by a civilian, not law enforcement officers who are granted power by the state to use deadly force (unless the officer used such force unlawfully). It would be like including emergency vehicles in the statistics for moving violations because they go over the speed limit and run red lights. Or consider that the Journal Star doesn’t report the killings in Iraq as “homicides.” One would expect them to use the term consistently if they believed it to mean/imply nothing more than “killing.”

Just to give a little example of denotation versus connotation, I’ve deliberately chosen to title this post “Journal Star inflates homicide numbers.” After all, to “inflate” simply means to increase in size, right? But of course, there’s a negative connotation to that word as well. I’m being accurate, yet tacitly editorializing. One wonders whether the Journal Star is doing the same.